Palin: Making up for lost time? (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Palin: Back already?
What happened
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin defended herself against critics who accuse her of sinking John McCain's presidential bid. In an interview with FOX News' Greta Van Susteren, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate said that she will "plow through that door" if she has a chance for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. (FOX News online)
What the commentators said
"After her brutal transformation by the McCain campaign into a shopaholic, whack-job diva," said Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, "Palin is now trying to unmake that makeover." So she's throwing open her door to the national press, "letting them hang in her Wasilla kitchen as she makes moose chili and cake and baby formula and hefty servings of spin."
This "PR offensive" is important for Palin's future, said Foon Rhee in The Boston Globe online. She's trying to get across the bottom-line message that "the sweeping Republican loss last week isn't her fault," before her GOP rivals pin the defeat on her.
Palin is sure making up for lost time, said Jay McDonough in Examiner.com. While she was "riding shotgun" for McCain, her boss largely kept her from talking to the press, but now she "can't get enough of the media." With legions of supporters hoping she'll run in 2012, "I reckon we should get used to seeing a lot more of Sarah Palin."
Palin might not have been ready for prime time this year, said Mona Charen in Townhall.com. But don't believe all the nasty "backbiting" by McCain aides who are calling her dumb. She'll be a contender if she "spends the next couple of years using her obvious smarts to bone up on national and international issues."
Comment on this article
Recent comments | 6 total
Why is it that columnists on the left like Dowd can spew their invective into the mainstream media and never be called for what they are - haters. Maureen - you're a hater.
Owlvee, I dislike Palin as much as anybody... but come on, your comment is highly inappropriate! Leave that sexist garbage out of this, please.
Sarah Palin is a clone of George W. Bush. She has all the policies, the thought processes, the intelligence of George Bush. Sarah Palin is attempting to pull the wool over our eyes with her "bipartisan" rantings. Sarah Palin, if ever elected President, could no more be trusted to follow through on her moderate stands than George Bush could be trusted to follow through on his professions of being a compassionate conservative. Or of supporting fiscal responsibility and smaller government. Sarah Palin is a Trojan horse for religious extremists to gain control of the White House. She believes in teaching creationism--not even its modified version, Intelligent Design--in the schools. Put her in the White House, she will do to religious toleration what George Bush did to fiscal responsibility.
Palin is actually further to the right of Bush, and she definitely was a factor in McCain's loss. I've talked to a lot of people who were undecided until McCain tapped Palin, at which point they became Obama supporters. She was completely unqualified and had never given a moment's thought to anything beyond the borders of Alaska until she became a VP nominee. Her "executive experience" was nominal at best in a state with a population smaller than Columbus, OH. She made herself look ignorant without any so-called filtering of the media, and she would have been chewed to pieces by allies and enemies alike had she actually made it to federal office. We don't need any more ideological extremists driving our nation any further into the ditch than the current one that's in the White House. You might not like to hear the truth, but telling the truth isn't being a "hater", it's being an American.
Clearly Palin is the next-big-thing for hardcore social conservatives. And clearly that wing of the electorate would have us believe it's the center. But really -- how does Palin's message reach the swing voters -- especially if she's the top of the ticket?
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