Palin’s back! And, to misquote the famous tag line from a Hollywood film of the 1930s, look who’s got her!
Could this be the dream Republican ticket in the making?
Trump and Palin. Sounds more like a real estate agency. Actually, it sounds even worse, a bizarre stand-up comedy act in an alien language.
God bless America. And God help her.
The conventional wisdom, at least as far as the American press is concerned, is that Sarah will help The Donald (as he likes to be called) in the impending Iowa primary. The latest polls, apparently, have Trump neck and neck with Ted Cruz. Her endorsement, announced with great fanfare late yesterday, could well tip the balance. Or so it is now being argued, though by who is unclear.
The only thing Palin is likely to tip, other than the sanity of rational American voters into madness is the presidential election to Hillary Clinton. But then Hillary’s campaign seems to have run into trouble of late, the septuagenarian self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders making unexpected headway in the opinion polls, not just in Iowa but in his home state of New Hampshire, where another early primary looms. Why that should be is unclear, or at least it is to me. Many would answer with a name: Bill.
What are we non-resident American voters to make of all this? The first response of this writer is a pledge to remain non-resident in perpetuity. We can laugh from afar at the political circus that this battle for the presidency has now become, but perhaps it’s a bit too serious for that. We are living in a world with serious problems. It was ever thus, of course, but not in living memory have there been quite so many evident threats to peace and economic stability.
Trump may know a great deal more than some of us give him credit for, although I doubt it. Palin knows even less than we give her credit for. Of course, she’s not on the ticket – yet – but presumably her mooning over Trump has come with a price. At least that’s the way the game is normally played. “I’ll not forget this, Sarah, when it comes to picking my cabinet.”
Secretary of State? “Now remind me again, Mr. President, why do Iraq and Iran hate each other so.?”
Commerce? “Now, why can’t we just buy lots more stuff from China, help them out of their mess? Or not, and let them stew.”
Homeland Security? “I can almost see that nasty Mr. Putin from my living room window, and I’m here to tell you, he’s not the kind of neighbour we want peering over our back fence.”
I may have got this election campaign all wrong. A few weeks ago I confidently predicted that the good sensible farming people of Iowa would put paid to Trump. Right now, though, the signs are that they are going in the other direction. I also dismissed the Democrat Party’s pretender Sanders as an irritating gadfly, and he’s turning out to be more than that.
America, it seems, is so determined to punish mainstream politicians, regardless of party, that it may be prepared to vote for any outsider, no matter how bizarre, irresponsible or ignorant, who is prepared to take them on.
Rabble-rousing, like muck-raking, is no bad thing, so long as it is in ‘safe’ hands. It can even be entertaining, and if it undermines the smug sense of entitlement in the corridors of power, then so much the better.
A Trump/Palin ticket sounds very much like first-class entertainment – but only so long as it ends up being booed off the stage. Right now, most of the audience is standing up and cheering.
(PS – It was Clark Gable who came back, from war service, and actress Greer Garson who ‘got him’ – as his co-star in a film called Adventure.)
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