Why I Don’t Respect Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin might not have been on the stage at last night’s Tea Party Debate*, but she was, however, on the minds of many tweeters. That’s the impression I got from reading my time line, anyway. So… where was she?

We always tease our current president for leading from behind, but if that’s the case, then what is Sarah doing? Leading from an underground bunker? Because that’s what I see… She’s like the sitcom neighbor standing outside of somebody’s house, looking in the kitchen window and watching the person inside doing all the work. Right now, she’s having it both ways. She gets to stick her head in the kitchen and give her two cents about what to cook, but she doesn’t have to sweat like the rest of the people.

At this rate, Tim Pawlenty has put in more work than she has, and he quit the race weeks ago. She shows up at the same events that actual candidates are at, she speaks on the same issues (from friendly bunkers like Hannity’s show), but she never has to take the fire that “real” candidates do. I don’t see her trading jabs with Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. I don’t see her standing under the hot lights being asked questions by Brian Williams. If she wants to be the president, then where is she? To continue the kitchen metaphor, it’s almost as if she’s going to come in with a store bought side dish after everyone else has cooked up most of the Christmas dinner.

Now, I didn’t say I don’t like Sarah Palin, because I do. But if she really is going to run for the presidency of the greatest nation on earth, I’d like to see a little more work out of her. I’d like to see her engage a news outlet that doesn’t rhyme with “clocks snooze”, for starters. I’d also like to see her show up for some of these debates and not just come in after the “weak” candidates have been picked off. And I definitely want to see her make a case for herself to the near majority of Americans that don’t like her. As things stand, her support is narrow, but deep. She needs to broaden it up, and if she wants to sit in the Oval Office, she should have started doing that over a year ago.

I think Sarah Palin can be qualified to be president, but I don’t think that she’s taken the steps that are necessary to get her to the White House. Here’s probably my biggest pet peeve… She had almost three years to work on an image make over, and she pretty much squandered them. She made sure to please her base, AKA the people who will buy her books, but she never tried to undo the (unfair) demonization she suffered back in 2008.

Here’s what she’s done… Imagine there’s a fire in your back yard. But the truth is, you don’t care for your back yard anyway. You don’t really go there. So you let it burn down and then never try to rehab it at all. You just work on your front yard. But even then, you don’t keep up the whole thing. You just focus on some bushes that you really love. Then one day, you realize that you might want to sell the property. But even then, you’re not sure. You advertise on television that you might be selling it, but you never put it up for sale. Well, for whatever reason, there’s a deadline to sell it, so you put in on the market in hopes of making a good sale. The problem is, you never really prepared the property, and while prospective buyers see potential in it, they’re not sure that they’re sold.

And there you have it. Sarah has pruned the hell out her Tea Party bushes, but the rest of the yard has been somewhat neglected. And if she plans to sell the joint, she’s going to need to make some corrections pretty soon.

I like Sarah Palin, I really do. I’ve wanted her to vindicate herself in the eyes of Americans since day one. She has been demonized and persecuted unfairly. She’s been picked over with a finer comb than most candidates who are actually running. And through it all, I’ve always wanted her to make the media look like fools for the abuse they’ve shown her. I’ve wanted Katie Couric to have to drink a two liter of Diet Pepsi to wash down the crow that Sarah would feed her. But it hasn’t happened. Over two years later, we still have a woman who hides in her bunker. She only goes on Fox News, and she mainly stays on the programs that let her talk without being challenged. I’m sorry, but our president needs to be tougher than that. Rick Perry might have a lot of explaining to do about Gardasil, but at least he stands under the hot lights and does it.

I’ll say it one last time… I like Sarah Palin, but as things stand, she hasn’t given me much of reason to respect her as a potential candidate for the highest office in this land. I want her to step her game up, but even then, that would require she takes the field.

*Note:  “Last night’s debate” is a reference to the CNN Tea Party Debate that was held Monday September 12, 2011.