The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Sarah Palin and Ado Annie

Posted on | September 26, 2011 | 25 Comments

Yesterday, Turner Classic Movies showed the 1955 Rogers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma, which is why Ado Annie came to mind when I read this item at ABC News:

It’s an exciting week in politics because this is the week Sarah Palin will tell the world her 2012 intentions. Or not.
At least that’s what she indicated to ABC News’ Jake Tapper at the Iowa State Fair last month, telling him September was “practically speaking … kind of a drop-dead timeline” when it comes to “jumping in the ring.”
With only five days left in the month, that means this week is the “drop-dead timeline,” right?
Not exactly. Since her early August trip to Iowa, she’s backed off on her self-imposed date, but as the days, debates and campaign events creep by and the state filing deadlines loom, the window may be closing.

If Palin intends to run, her long delay can perhaps be explained as strategy. But if she doesn’t intend to run, why not just say “no”?

“Ain’t what you might say, ‘promised.’ I just told him ‘maybe.’ “

So we wait to see whether “maybe” means “yes” — or the word that Ado Annie could never bring herself to say.

Maybe I ought to be more careful with my analogies. Joe McGinniss reads this blog, y’know.

Category: Election 2012, Sarah Palin

Comments

25 Responses to “Sarah Palin and Ado Annie”

  1. Charles
    September 26th, 2011 @ 11:18 pm

    She’s probably just waiting for the Romney buyout offer.

  2. John Klepper
    September 26th, 2011 @ 11:40 pm

    Were the governorship of Alaska not a
    position of power, perhaps claiming victimhood while showing distress
    in her speech of resignation might be appropriate.

    Being the chief executive of the state,
    suffering the slings and arrows of office should not only be endured,
    no matter how harsh and expensive (especially in fact; as Governor of
    Alaska, the idea Alaskan laws allow people to lawfully cause their
    chief enforcer of those very same laws to quit, hopefully not at
    whim, necessitates real leadership, not resignation and enrichment)
    but welcomed as evidence of righteousness waiting to be exposed via
    leftist hyperbole.

    In other words, Cheney is right.

    If any single person I know of could
    change this perception I have, as a matter of fact, it is Sarah
    Palin. I really like her, her story, and want to be a fan. But in
    2011 I can’t see that happening unless her endorsement of the future
    president is seen as causing, in part, the landslide of said future
    POTUS.

  3. Garym
    September 26th, 2011 @ 11:56 pm

    whatever

  4. Joe
    September 27th, 2011 @ 12:02 am

    So who is playing Jud Fry? 

    I would say Joe McGinniss or Andrew Sullivan (who both have the necessary sexual creepiness-obsession), but neither (even if you combined them) have the requisit testosterone/danger/gravatis factor of Rod Steiger. 

  5. alwaysfiredup
    September 27th, 2011 @ 12:13 am

    “Being the chief executive of the state, suffering the slings and arrows of office should not only be endured, no matter how harsh and expensive”

    Right.  It’s a responsible choice to bankrupt one’s family to serve one’s political ambition.

  6. Adjoran
    September 27th, 2011 @ 12:21 am

    There’s not much time to get up those Palin topics before the “drop dead deadline” passes.  No certain date, but ballot requirements for the earlier states are rapidly approaching – no doubt some of the diehards will claim she could run as a write-in and enter the day before the primary and still win, but I don’t see it.

    Worse yet, the talent pool is mighty shallow for GOP fundraisers, pro staff, volunteer coordinators, consultants, etc.  One of the critiques of Perry coming out of Florida was his hiring of former Crist staff, but they were probably among the last experienced hands left not already working for someone else.

    Again, those who have invested their hopes and dreams in a Palin run will insist she has a nationwide cadre of volunteers ready to step up.  True enough, but running a multi-state political operation requires management.  It’s one of those things people tend to assume is much easier than it is – until they have to do it.

  7. alwaysfiredup
    September 27th, 2011 @ 12:26 am

    She’ll be fine, your concern notwithstanding.

  8. John Klepper
    September 27th, 2011 @ 12:30 am

    If the only options the Governor of Alaska has are bankruptcy or not, I think you’re right.   I’m not convinced those were the only options available to the Governor of Alaska, then or now.

  9. Joe
    September 27th, 2011 @ 12:48 am

    Romney would pay big for her not to get in the race. 

  10. Joe
    September 27th, 2011 @ 1:01 am

    http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/09/how_lucky_is_mitt_romney.html?mid=twitter_DailyIntel

    A weak article on substance, but I actually did find it humorous. 

  11. Joe
    September 27th, 2011 @ 1:05 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9esNl4VmME

  12. Joe
    September 27th, 2011 @ 1:07 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lz8BkmrUJo

    The classic with Steiger. 

  13. Joe
    September 27th, 2011 @ 1:13 am

    Shirley McClain is a hottie in Oklahoma. 

  14. McGehee
    September 27th, 2011 @ 1:19 am

    Shirley Jones.

  15. McGehee
    September 27th, 2011 @ 1:22 am

    The Alaska Legislature was still very much Murkowski-ite during Palin’s governorship, and only meets for a couple of months each year. By the time they would have reconvened to consider changing the law, she might very well already be bankrupted.

  16. Michael Wiley
    September 27th, 2011 @ 2:18 am

    She’s running but waiting for the gang of 9 gorillas throwing banasas at each other from their respective cages slims down to a manageable few. And, yes, this is a smart political strategy.

    As Donna Brazile wrote in June 2011:

    “Palin can wait until the last possible moment to officially file her intent to run. Others who have already filed or are looking to file need to start developing traction-generating strategies now. However, Palin has both name recognition and the ability to quickly raise the funds needed to pull together a massive organization in the key early states. This media-savvy political professional can decide when it is the right time for her to file. “

  17. Dave
    September 27th, 2011 @ 2:36 am

    I’ve heard this before, but what if she had enough juice to stay in the top tier for a few months-and then pick up experienced people as other campaigns bow out?

  18. Anonymous
    September 27th, 2011 @ 3:48 am

    Wow man buzzkill.

  19. Anonymous
    September 27th, 2011 @ 3:53 am

    I’m not sure I’d go with “the Donna Brazile plan”.

  20. john lichtenstein
    September 27th, 2011 @ 4:41 am

    Maybe means no. Yes means maybe not. 

  21. Adjoran
    September 27th, 2011 @ 4:41 am

    What’s she doing these days?  I take it she’s not working for Al Gore . . .

  22. Adjoran
    September 27th, 2011 @ 4:44 am

    How can I argue with such an incisive rebuttal?

    😀

  23. Adjoran
    September 27th, 2011 @ 4:54 am

    Not cool, dude.  Fortunately I noticed the lack of a byline, and had only read a few sentences before the little voices in my head stopped telling me to kill and wondered, “Who the hell wrote this crap?” and I looked and found it.

    Jonathan Chait.  Really?  One of Obama’s very best butt buddies?  The Journ-O-List’s “Propagandist Against the Reactionary Tea Party Subversives of the Month” for three months in a row before the ring of fixers got busted?  Some unsuspecting reader might have read the whole thing and been scarred for life, never able to look upon a printed page without cringing in terror and begging not to be sent to the Reeducation Camp.

    Give ’em a head’s up before linking to that White Bread Red, mmmkay?

  24. Adjoran
    September 27th, 2011 @ 4:57 am

    She’s GOT “the juice” but that time slipping away is the time to be organizing in later states and blue states.  That work has to be directed by someone who knows the state and who to recruit in the various regions.  When candidates drop out, it’s usually because they ran out of money early, so they won’t have much of this in later states, either.  There will be nobody to pick up.

  25. Anonymous
    September 27th, 2011 @ 5:46 am

    She babels on the tele, parroting talking points, Ourmanpour sits in awe.

    I suspect the Donna Brazile plan is based on Clinton’s successful late start twenty years ago or as they say in politics the last century.