With Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton taking herself out of future presidential contention a few weeks back, it served as rationale for my idealistic best friend to start once again pushing the concept of yours truly becoming the first woman president. And under the massive pile of laundry in her Berkeley apartment, I might be able to find early drafts of Casterline for President campaign paraphernalia. But, what we as women fail to take into account is that while the leading lady of politics is no longer Hillary with her living history of political and personal baggage, the standard and in some respects the pressure of breaking that glass ceiling has been placed squarely on the shoulders of former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. Sarah is back on the stage of the political arena and in the process has “gone rogue.” Palin rose to national prominence on Aug. 29, 2008 when GOP candidate John McCain announced her as his running mate. And her role within the framework of the McCain-Palin 2008 ticket was to galvanize the conservative base as well as syphon away women voters from the Democratic party. The strategic question always has been how much of a political liability was she? Sure she can attract voters. But, she much like Clinton, Palin has become a polarizing figure. On July 3, 2009 Palin resigned from her position as the Governor of Alaska, citing that it was out of financial concern for the citizens of her state. Palin said, “With this announcement that I am not seeking re-election, I’ve determined it is best to transfer the authority of governor to lieutenant governor, Parnell. And I’m willing to do this so that this administration can continue without interruption.” The most political thing about Palin is that she is the master at passing the blame onto the press or the side that opposes her. She has gone rogue on nearly any entity that dare question the lack of ethics she exhibited as governor. Palin claims that she does not conduct politics as usual. Yet, she bears striking similarity to Sen. John Kerry as a political flip-flopper. Palin initially campaigned on the platform that she was for the “Bridge to Nowhere”, which she later dismissed as a policy. Instead it became a road to nowhere. In her resignation speech, Palin addressed thematically that an individual ought to not just rest on the idea of doing what is most comfortable for them. Funny, because toward the end she utilizes an analogy
that she states is comfortable for her and that is of a basketball point guard. But, that of course is just parsing Palin’s rhetoric. Palin makes her political return with the release of her book “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
And this means a media blitzkrieg with interviews granted to Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey. “Going Rogue” is Palin’s chance to dispel any false accusations and gives her a forum to lay out the truth as she sees fit to print. However, it reads like a revisionist work of prose where she asserts that the McCain campaign that took a chance on a first term governor “bottled her up.” Palin goes on, to discuss the rumors about her husband, Todd Palin aka the “First Dude” through the following passage, “That day in sunny Texas when the divorce rumors were rampant in the tabloids, I watched Todd, tanned and shirtless, take the baby from my arms and walk him back to the ranch house so Trig could nap while I made calls. Seeing Todd’s blue eyes smiling, I chuckled. Dang, I thought. Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?” I’m sorry but regardless of the 40 percent Borders member discount, I should not feel like I’m reading the political science version of the “Twilight” saga. Seriously, the fawning is for the genres of romance and young adult fiction. This kind of fictional tale harkens back to the idealism of a fairy tale, not of what reality is. And the book as a whole reeks of extreme narcissism in a way that surpasses what an autobiography typically encompasses. “Going Rogue”, is all about how Sarah Palin has been victimized by the media. The book also fails to credit to its ghostwriter, Lynn Vincent, who has a history of anti-gay and racially charged remarks, and has gone so far as saying that President Barack Obama is the “face of the minority survivor of abortion.” While Palin might not endorse these radical viewpoints, the problem that I have is that people are drawing comparisons between Palin and Clinton. Yes, they are both polarizing women in politics that are criticized at times over the most absurd things. But, Sarah is not some stand-in for Hillary. The only kind of stand in I want to see or hear of Sarah Palin is stand-up comedian Tina Fey.
By MANIKA CASTERLINE
Opinions editor
Popularity: unranked [?]
