SARAH PALIN’s Next Move

Make no mistake, Sarah Palin entered the political scene last year like a bolt of lightening. But the flash has since passed and she now finds herself trapped in a back-and-forth with David Letterman. This is a losing situation for her as there is no winner in a verbal war with a smart-ass. Even if she is right the best she can hope for is a tie. She needs to get past this as soon as possible as she has a much bigger issue to confront which I call the “Dan Quayle factor”.

 

Governor Palin now finds herself in the same hole former Vice-President Dan Quayle could never dig out of – namely the general perception of being an intellectual lightweight. Americans almost always insist that their presidents have a certain gravitas, a grown-up, human intelligence quality about them. George W being the most recent and obvious exemption to this rule. He got in because people also strongly want to like their president. Say what you want about W’s politics, he did seem like an OK guy to have a beer with. Palin, while likeable enough, often comes off too strident. Further, she was sunk early on in the campaign when she could not come up what newspapers she reads. You will not find a bigger group of know-it-alls than the national media who circle like sharks around a weakness like this. Every misstep, or even the hint there of, gets micro-analyzed, and cut into a montage with every other misstep until the end of time. Just ask Dan Quayle how much he would like to have the letter “e” back when spelling the word potato from back in his VP days.

 

The best move Palin can make now is to appear bigger than all this and add stature. My advice would be to accept Letterman’s offer to appear on his show, state her case clearly, succinctly, graciously accept his apology and move on. The red meat has been thrown to her base, it is now time to grow that base. Spend the next two years picking her spots and studying foreign affairs and the economy. Republicans are historically much more pragmatic about their presidential nominee than Democrats. Palin won’t escape the primary in 2012 if she doesn’t find a way to broaden her appeal before then.     

 

Next week:  TV: we’re not dead yet!