Mark America

What's She Thinking?

In a continual state of panic over the fact that they can’t seem to nail down what Sarah Palin is doing, they’ve taken to creating their own narratives and odd explanations for what she’s doing.  The explanations range from the purely silly to the outright nefarious and conspiratorial, but none of the media’s grand minds seem to be able to figure out what Governor Palin is doing.  It’s ridiculous to think that after all this time, they still seem to feel the need to make up stories, or impute motives, but in no way rely upon what she’s saying or doing as evidence of what she might do.  No, the journalists enjoy making it up, but most of us out here in flyover country liked the press a good deal better when they were known simply as reporters.

Among the theories are:

She’s just stringing along her poor, deluded supporters, milking them of their money in book sales and so on, but has no intention of running.

She’s really after the VP slot.  She knows she can’t be elected on her own, and this is her best shot at making it inside the halls of DC power. 

She’s just a tawdry attention hound.

If you find these amusing, there are many more, and you can find them on news and political sites all over the web.  One writer at Glenn Beck’s The Blaze actually argues that she’s out. Period.  When you see these kinds of ‘news’ stories, you and I must wonder: “What’s going on inside their heads?”

Well, as I’ve told you before, I have no special insights.  Like you, I am just an observer of these events, watching from afar, and forming my own conclusions.  That said, I’d like to address some of the more ridiculous of these various assertions:

She isn’t of the character to needlessly string people along.  If she says she’s still thinking about it, you can believe it, and given the nature of her own beliefs as expressed all over the media, it is impossible to conclude that she’s playing people for some crass profit motive.  She wouldn’t spend money on a bus and all that accompanies her bus tours if some sort of nefarious money-making scheme was her aim.  It’s not as though the bus is covered in corporate sponsor logos and she’s somehow being paid in advertising dollars.

Other than 2008, she’s never really been satisfied to play second fiddle to anybody.  Truth be told, I think she would have liked a more aggressive campaign, even then. Earlier in her political career  in Alaska, there were those who urged her to run for Lieutenant Governor, but in her own way, as always, she determined it would be better to just go for it all.  This sort of daring has been the staple of Palin’s political career that makes journalists crazy.  She simply won’t accept the premises they lay out, and one by one, she demolishes them, time after time.  She’s unconventional in most every way, and when she criticizes “politics as usual,” she may be one of the very few who can say it and actually mean it.  More, it’s unlikely that Mrs. Palin is enamored of Washington Beltway politics. If she went there at all, it would be as the driver so as to change all of that. I simply can’t imagine her along for the ride as some lesser figure’s VP.

If Sarah Palin were an attention addict, one could think of a thousand ways in which she could better fulfill her need.  She’s essentially a ‘rock-star’ wherever she goes, and it smashes the limits of credulity to think that Mrs. Palin is just doing this all for her own personal kicks.

Part of the problem with the journalists who cover her is that they’re all trying to guess at the secret mystery they assert constitutes the mind of Sarah Palin.  Very few of them seem inclined to simply take her at her word.  They inevitably describe her as “unpredictable” or otherwise imply that she’s flighty and this is the reason for their incapacity to guess her next move.  Of course, none of this squares with what you and I know about Governor Palin.

What are we to conclude?  If you’re like me, you will take the lady at her word.  When has Sarah Palin ever mislead us?  Ignore what the press tries so hard to intimate in shaded words and craftily constructed smears.  Skip that, and focus on what you know.  There’s absolutely no reason on earth to conclude that she’s doing anything other than she has said she will do, which is to continue to evaluate the situation and make her decision when she’s ready.

She’s stated repeatedly that the end of September would probably be as late as she would go without coming to a conclusion on the matter.  She hasn’t been shy about taking on President Obama, and even the Republicans in Congress, and she’s been very kind to most of her fellow Republicans who are already officially seeking the nomination, but on occasion, she has chastised them when she thought they weren’t doing all they could, including famously, Mitt Romney’s tepid and tardy remarks on the Debt Ceiling.

On the 3rd of September, she will deliver the keynote address to a large audience at a Tea Party event in Waukee, Iowa.  She must know, of course, that there are people coming from all over Iowa, and indeed all over the country, just to hear her speak.  Every place she goes, she is mobbed by adoring crowds, or the media, but usually both.  What should be increasingly clear to all who watch is that she has a very large following that looks a good deal like a ready-made grassroots operation at the first indication it will be needed.

Considering all this, I can’t imagine that Mr. Santarelli at The Blaze is correct.  After a moment’s contemplation, one begins to wonder who the real attention hounds may be.  Still, it’s entertaining to watch them all flail in typical journalistic fashion. No story? No news?  No matter. Just make it up. Add one opinion; shaken but not stirred, et voila: Journalism!