Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Palin

I offer my thoughts on Palin’s amazing and inscrutable decision over at the Corner, here, and here.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Ashland tomorrow.

Discussions - 4 Comments

I believe in a mother staying home and raising her kids. That's what I lived and if that is the central factor in Palin's decision then she is doing what is right. I found giving up ambition incredibly hard, and no one had tempted me from a high place with all the kingdoms of the world.


If that is it, that her family needs her -- any mother who does not know that her children are worth the world is not much of a mother -- then her choice makes sense to me. It won't be good enough for most people in America, though, especially not those in the high places.

I imagine Sarah Palin plans to do something on the national scene. She may not know precisely what that is. It may seem impossible to be governor of Alaska, meet her responsibilities to her family and contribute as a citizen-politician to finding a way out of the impending national crisis. If so this is a honorable decision.

Does she has the insight and intellectual firepower to lead the Republican Party forward? We will see. On the other hand no one else seems to be up to the task. Sometimes she reminds me of the populist Ross Perot - someone whose style resonates strongly with about 35% of the population and turns off about 50%, someone with individualist-frontier instincts that are difficult to translate into coherent policy. If she learns to function in a broader range of political styles and demonstrates more intellectual depth she could be a winner.

As far as her experience is concerned, it seems to be much more substantial than Obama's was.

The odds are she's jumped the shark, sad to say.

Asking Palin to lead the Republican Party forward seems an awful lot in the circumstances. If she has not done as peter lawler suggests, can she run a front-porch campaign? I mean like James Garfield did, not like the blog-essayists. How can she say, "I am staying home to be with my family." and mount a national campaign at the same time?

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