Embracing that reality makes me want to shower, and it is an acknowledgment that our political system has imploded. I'm the proud owner of a "Hater" T-shirt, for crying out loud, but the future is increasingly clear. If this nation is subjected to another four years of Obama's lunacy, it likely is finished, kaput, toasted.
How could you? some will ask. She's nuts and you are mean to her, they'll say. I'm not arguing with any of that. OK, so the lovely Sarah P. occasionally gets flabbergasted and speaks in tongues and jibberjabbers on Facebook and even makes up words such as "refudiated" or "misunderestimate"; how much damage can she possibly do in the White House? There would be people to watch her and keep the witch doctors away, and nobody in his right mind would even think of giving her the red-button thingy. She could do the State of the State on Twitter -- "Wow! Doing great, America. Pls rejoice. Hey, can see Wal-Mart from here." -- and save lots of valuable TV time.
She could issue long, convoluted missives about momma grizzlies and papa grizzlies and baby grizzlies through a phalanx of spokesboobs. It would be like when she was governor. It came to me during an epiphany triggered by a bag of jelly doughnuts that the lovely Sarah P. might be ''The One.'' Most Americans mistakenly think she is a regular person -- that, like most of us, she looks silly sometimes and moronic at others.
She is not, of course, anything like us. To be kind, she is a vindictive, self-promoting, narcissistic millionaire who would run over your cat to get ahead. The big news? Not everybody is aware of that -- and she is not Obama. Politicians such as Mitt Romney look too much like politicians to the average folks. They look at him and see more of the same, but with nice hair. They look at Palin and think, "Hey, she's as goofy as we are." Would she even run in 2012? Some say absolutely not.
Barring cosmic weirdness, I don't think she will be able to sit it out.
Win or lose, it is another book or two. More dough. More attention. A recent poll shows her running neck-and-neck with Obama. But that could change. In recent days, news stories about Obama make it increasingly clear that he gives even Chicago politics a bad name, that he is a hopeless liar. David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, writing in "The Hill," reports that during the health-care debacle, Obama shamelessly lied about anything and everything. His spokesgoons were vicious in attacking anybody questioning what he was saying. The charges of failure to do right -- dismissed as partisan attacks aimed at scaring people -- have proved true, and revelations are surfacing daily. It turns out Obama lied about everything from radically expanding IRS powers to targeting small-business owners who were promised the law would benefit them. Instead, it will be regulatory hell. He also lied to Congress.
While he was assuring Americans they would not have to foot the bill for illegal immigrants' health care, he was promising the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that for its Obamacare support the restrictions would be lifted later -- in the immigration reform bill moving to center stage.
When South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson famously said Obama lied about the issue, he was dead right. The good news is that Americans are wising up, and that will help Palin or any GOP candidate. Would she be the best choice? Get real, but as off-putting as it is, Palin's name is splashed across the media every day. She has captured America's imagination; she has real star power. If she and Bob make it to the big show, and if it is Obama's name on the other side of the ballot, well, the choice is clear.
Maybe it's time, finally, to refudiate run-of-the-mill politicos and vote for someone as crazy as the rest of us. And never, never misunderestimate her.
Paul Jenkins is editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.
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