How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?

Commentary By Ron Beasley

No, it's not the dreaded "liberals" who are singing that song to Sarah Palin, it's the Republicans and conservatives who dream of winning again.

First we have Conservative and Evangelical Christian Rod Dreher:

The rap on Palin is that she's too shallow and inexperienced for the
presidency � a conclusion that early Palin supporters like me came to
during the 2008 campaign. Alas, for conservatives in search of a
champion, there's nothing in Going Rogue to challenge that conclusion. It's like this: Palin spends seven pages dishing about her appearance on Saturday Night Live, but just over one page discussing her national security views.

Palin positions herself as a populist, but her populism is entirely
cultural. She never misses an opportunity to tell us how weepy she gets
when she thinks about our country and its military. She fires the
governor's mansion chef, who is bored because her kids won't eat his
fancypants food. She swoons over a meal of homemade blueberry pie from
"hardworking, unpretentious, patriotic" Alaskans � unlike, one
presumes, those uppity Berkeley snobs who prefer tarte Tatin at Chez
Panisse.

A little of that goes a long way, and I wouldn't begrudge Palin a bit
of it if her populism had any economic substance. Early in Going Rogue
she talks in detail about how Exxon exploited the people of Alaska in
the Exxon Valdez disaster. And her experience tangling with oil
companies taught Palin about how big business colludes with government
to create a crony capitalism that harms the common good.

And yet, she's incapable of understanding how the uncritically pro-business economic agenda she touts makes this possible.

Yes Rod, she's a hypocritical idiot who has no interest in policy but lots of interest in being front and center. And yes this is a problem for the Republicans - the Republican base loves her but everyone else sees her as an ignorant shallow publicity hound and there is not enough of the Republican base left to elect anyone.

Daniel Larison gets it:

After reading some of the things Palinites
have been writing this week, I am tempted to say that they are
�objectively� pro-Obama inasmuch as they are doing their very best to
make Obama�s re-election secure. It�s tempting, but it wouldn�t be
entirely fair. What is a bit sad is simply how out of it Palinites are.
R.S. McCain imagines that Palin is extremely popular. This is true only
among a shrinking number of Republicans. Douglas thinks that Palin is
powerful because she has become a favorite pinata of the left. In fact,
she has very little power outside the conservative cocoon where she
receives so much praise and deference. As her favorability ratings
show, the intense and concentrated opposition to her has helped turn
most of the public against her; Palin has managed to do the rest all by
herself. That is evidence of her political weakness. She certainly
generates a remarkable degree of irrational loathing, but then she also
generates irrational and excessive admiration that makes her supporters
believe absurd things about her and her political potential.

What McCain misses in his article is that liberal journalists
actually take great delight in the Palin phenomenon. Yes, of course,
they don�t want to see her in power, but I think they do want to see
her prosper and thrive as the face of the Republican Party. An American
right led by or identified with Palin is one that they can very easily
ridicule and discredit, and at the same time they can be confident that
a Palinized GOP poses no threat to anything they value.

That's right, bring her on.  She is a key part of the Republican Party's self destruction.  They pandered to the lunatic fringe for years and now the lunatics have taken over the asylum. 

How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away Sarah?  Every time I do a Sarah Palin post I hope it's my last but she continues to be the gift that just keeps giving.