Sarah Palin Can Write?

The Palinistas are out in full force, getting ready to rally to Sarah Palin's stops on the tour for her book, which, after so much Sturm und Drang, finally came out today. The noted book-banning wolf killer, who's read no more books than she's "written," has pumped a lot of excitement in Republican circles for a possible presidential bid in 2012 even as only 24 percent of Americans opposed the very idea of her candidacy in a recent poll. Although polls consistently show hostility to Palin and her views, she doesn't need a large base of support in the Republican nomination process in a crowded field of candidates where you only need a small plurality for momentum.

Meanwhile, details involving Palin's outlook on life demonstrate how unfit she is for the Presidency. Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has described Palin in her columns as vindictive and spiteful. She compared her viciousness toward opponents to that of Richard Nixon, though I can't recall Nixon ever accusing John F. Kennedy or even George McGovern of palling around with terrorists (even Nixon himself palled around with Communists like Mao and Brezhnev), as Palin did against Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. Palin has complained about political correctness, and not the kind of loopy political correctness that encourages us to accept the legitimacy of Kwanzaa but the kind of political correctness that encourages sensitivity towards racial and ethnic minorities. Never mind her intolerance for criticism against her.

Her lack of sensitivity toward urban blacks, like the President, was displayed not by her accusations that Obama was bosom buddies with a former Weather Underground member but her desire to push his connection (since severed with Jeremiah Wright, to push the connection to the black urban population and strike fear into hearts in the heartland. John McCain, to his credit, refused to exploit the Wright association.)

The success (well, box office success, anyway) of the movie 2012 has given more popularity to the idea that the world will end on December 21 of that year due to the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar. (So much for Christmas.) Just as scary, however, is another date on the 2012 calendar - November 6, the date of the next presidential election. If Sarah Palin is elected the next President of the United States in three years, Armageddon is going to look preferable . . . and attractive.