Fingerprints

We all feel the pain and anguish for Japan right now, as well we should, but we know what has happened will lead to an endless discussion of nuclear power in this country. I do not claim to know the answer to our energy dilemma, but I do know that nuclear power can produce a lot of energy for a nation desperately in need of it, and that means us. For those who want to see America full of electric cars, I cannot help but ask, are you not generally the same people who are against both nuclear power and coal plants? There is no doubt that the U.S. needs to develop more wind and solar power, but no one wants the wind farms, gridlines, or solar panels in his own neighborhood. Of course no one wants nuclear waste disposal sites in his backyard. Would you prefer to exchange one energy problem for another? Maybe you do not realize that no new oil refineries have been built in the U.S. in decades because nobody wants to live near those, either. Would you like to drive more fuel-efficient cars or drive fewer miles to work every day? How about voluntarily controlling population growth and the absurd demographics that cause the ever-increasing parking lots on our freeways? I say we just drill, baby, drill and wish our energy problems away! Just kidding, folks; I’m not buying any of Sarah Palin’s overly simplistic bombast any more than you are.

As most of the pundits have said recently, I think Palin is sliding down the hill of political oblivion. I think many of us have realized for a long time that if Mittens had traded in his flip-flops and magic underpants for a Protestant uniform years ago, few would have ever heard the name Sarah Palin. Newt may yet break through the skeletons of affairs, divorces, and House retirement more than a decade ago, but the has been mantle may be a little too heavy. Can Huckleberry overcome his aversion to the big money men of Wall Street? Can Bachmann surpass Palin as the Tea Party Babe? Recent stories and rumors in the news have implied that the Republican establishment has had quite enough of Palin’s outspoken idiocy. Notice that I did not say her relentless nastiness toward President Obama and those on the other side of the aisle. They love that part about her. It’s the raging incompetence they cannot abide. The movers and shakers have a real problem on their hands because they want to block her from a future candidacy, but they do not exactly want to shut her up. She is like a sawed-off shotgun loaded with birdshot. She makes a lot of noise, but she is difficult to aim and there are often innocent bystanders involved. Ultimately, she might be doing more damage to the people pulling her trigger than the widespread targets at which she is aimed. What to do, what to do?

Just under a month ago, the crude manuscript of a book by Frank Bailey, Sarah and Todd Palin’s right hand man in the Troopergate scandal, was supposedly leaked. I am one of those people who has read that book, but I have never believed the back story on the leak scandal. Without going further into details, let’s just say that I have been intimately involved in the digital self-publishing industry practically since it began in the ‘90’s, and many of the official stories surrounding Frank bailey’s Blind Allegiance simply do not add up. Do not misunderstand: I am speaking of the blog hoopla, not the material actually contained in the book. I think Bailey’s detailed storyline of Sarah Palin’s lack of competence to lead due to her own distractions of personal vendettas is absolutely true. Most of Frank Bailey’s material aligns perfectly with all the research I have done on Sarah Palin.

There is just one little caveat: Babygate. Frank Bailey is most certainly the world’s expert on Troopergate, but as far as a scandalous baby issue goes, he was just another man in the hospital waiting room thanking his lucky stars that he did not have to be any closer to the real action in that mysterious month of April 2008. Frank opened the door for the any Republican operatives to walk through with a broad smile. He exposed Palin’s relentless childishness without leaving any fingerprints from The Republican Party or its bought and paid for mainstream media. There has been much speculation that the many e-mails exposed in Blind Allegiance could not be published, at least not yet, and that may or may not be true. However, it is more than a rumor that the Republican debates kick off in May, and I bet that proportionally few serious Republican operatives want to see her on that stage! Of course a lot of television viewers would love to see Catfight of the Century between Palin and Bachmann, but those viewers are probably Democrats. When the serious Repub voters are having trouble defending their side from a sitting President, the last thing they need is a couple of easily motivated but research-impaired women representing the party under a spotlight of sensual strutting and name-calling.

Just as surely as Mitt’s Mormonism lit a fire to this problem, the right wing’s promotion and elevation of the Tea Party has exacerbated the issue for Republican operatives. The Tea Party is Sarah Palin’s ace in the hole. No matter how much they may publicly try to deny it, if Sarah runs against the Republicans in a third party, a vote split is inevitable. She may not get but a few percent of the total vote, but that is all it takes when the two parties so totally control our democratic voting system and the media. How many Dems blame Nader for Gore’s loss in 2000? The parties controlled the debates and they would not even allow Ralph onstage! Can you imagine Palin being held at the sidelines in the same manner? I can’t. Is she entirely too chicken to face her opponents in a debate in the first place? This could quite possibly be true, but I doubt that Karl Rove and others are waiting around to find out. Unless she runs as a Democrat, they don’t want to see her name on the ballot. The trick is that they cannot afford to make her mad enough to take all the Evangelicals to the Tea Party, but they do not really wish to shut her up permanently, either. She is too useful as a public bigmouth.

This brings us back full circle. Thinking Americans know that Palin has no answers to our very daunting energy problems. She is just a ball of charisma that happens to be good at spouting rhetoric. The operatives and the media were all too complicit in squashing the story of Babygate practically the moment the issue was launched nationally in August 2008. The story actually went all the way back to March ’08 when John McCain clinched the nomination. The fingerprints are there for every voter to see. All you have to do is look. Now we are facing real travesty and tragedy, from the lack of a truly good Republican candidate full of new, responsible solutions to the nation’s problems to the environmental, human, and economic horror that has engulfed Japan. The true story of Babygate is a bigger scandal than Charlie Sheen could ever imagine, but at this point, I doubt that many Americans will ever hear it, at least on television. Like the peaceful protesters in Madison, the revolution will not be televised. Sarah Palin has already been taken out of the game. She just doesn’t know it yet.

Note: This article was originally composed for Blogger News Network 3/16/11 for a mostly moderate Republican readership.