She might give Jindal a run for his money.
There’s a suspicion in some McCain loyalist precincts that Gov. Sarah Palin is beginning to play the Republican base against John McCain — McCain won’t let her campaign in Michigan…McCain won’t let her bring up Jeremiah Wright… McCain doesn’t like her terrorist pal talks….
Think ahead to 2010…2011…2012.
Palin is ambitious. Very ambitious.
And if she wants the job, she’s easily the frontrunner to become THE voice of the angry Right in the Wilderness. She is a favorite of talk radio and Fox News conservatives, and speaks their language as only a true member of the club can. (Her recent Limbaugh interview was full of dog whistles that any Dittohead would recognize. Including her actual use of the word ditto.)
Palin will have plenty of time to become fluent on national issues. She will easily benefit from the low expectations threshhold, and will probably even garner positive reviews from the MSM types who disparage her today.
Palin will be judged to be “ready” in four years. George Will and David Brooks and Peggy Noonan will all swoon over her once more. Ok, maybe not George Will.
Palin is an enormously talented politician. When she knows what she’s talking about, or even when she knows enough to fake it, she is very, very appealing, and very good at redirecting questions to whatever her message is.
I was talking to my dad the other day about Palin. It doesn’t look like the GOP party leadership is positioning her for the future — she was simply one more mavericky feather in McCain’s cap. But the more I see of Palin, the more it becomes clear that she is the type of person who can and will position herself. I may not like her, but her shameless self-promotion does seem to work.