Herban Sprawl

The morning paper greeted me with an intriguing headline. Sarah Palin is resigning as the governor of Alaska. Wow, I thought, that’s interesting.

The pundits all had their opinions, of course, and so did the blogs that Big Kitty reads. While we scraped and sanded the porch, we discussed it, and it comes down to this. It’s hard to dress up in designer clothes when you are hampered by the rules and regulations, not to mention ethics and etiquette, of being a public official. It’s hard to be squirreled away in Alaska, when all the action is in the lower 48.

Some are saying she’s throwing away her chances at the 2012 election. I say she knew she didn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hawaii of getting the nomination because the moderates are desperately trying to stitch the party together.

The other piece of this is that Sarah Palin got used to all the attention. She loved being all dressed and made up and being in front of the cameras. The trouble is, her shoot from the hip style got her into trouble as a politician. That wouldn’t be the case if she was the female version of Rush Limbaugh. And certainly, she is photogenic enough for television, so there it is. I’m thinking she got an offer that would insure a designer wardrobe, a lot of money for a big family, and she wouldn’t have to worry about staying inside the lines.

Did her kids really want her out of politics? Probably. The teenagers were probably thinking how good it would be to be able to make out with their boy/girlfriends at the drive-in without worrying about the paparazzi for the National Enquirer being in the next snowmobile over. If Mama’s on t.v., though, they’re gonna continue to have problems - at least it won’t be hurting Mama’s shot at the White House.

If I’m a heavy-hitter moderate in the Republican party, I grease the wheels to make sure she gets some kind of television deal because then she’s only a talking head. She and Rush and O’Reilly and Ann can continue to stir up the conservatives, but the moneyed moderates can retake the party.

Is this the last we’ll see of her? Never. That woman loves the limelight, the cameras love her face, and she’s still the darling of the right wing nuts. I’m thinking her picture will produce a lot of material for the sperm bank, so maybe she’s not a total waste after all.