Sarah, there's two ways you can go out now

[NuclearDem]

You're at the end of your political career. Like it or not, and whether the controversy around RifleScopeGate is warranted or not, you're at the end.

Not only did RSG hurt your standing with a lot of common sense Americans and maybe even with your own supporters, but your subsequent LibelGate was the final proverbial nail in the coffin of your Presidential ambitions.

Why? Because it finally proved, without a doubt, that you don't have the qualities we look for in a President. Whether we disagree with your politics or not, there are certain things most Americans look for in a Presidential candidate: respect for opponents in the face of disagreements, the ability to accept responsibility, and the willingness to acknowledge controversy and reflect on your own behavior.

If you hadn't already done it over an entire political career, you did it with one Facebook note.

If you hadn't already shown a blatant disrespect for progressives in your demagoguery of the Tea Party, you showed in your note you think liberals are just as, if not more, capable of violence or sowing the seeds of hate as your own party, who HAS sown those very seeds.

If you hadn't already shown a lack of ability to accept responsibility for being ill-prepared for interviews, instead blaming it on the interviewer, you showed in your note you believe any accusation aimed at you regarding RSG is purely the byproduct of progressives seeking to manufacture a 'blood libel' against you. Nevermind the insensitivity and boneheaded inaccuracy of the usage of the term.

If you hadn't already shown a lack of willingness to acknowledge your controversy surrounding the corruption of our national dialogue through the discussion of death panels, you showed in your note you refuse to acknowledge your own use of violent imagery and your shameless use of the useful idiots in the Tea Party to earn you extra cash.

Sarah, you're NOT Presidential. And you just proved it for all of us.

So now, there's two ways you can go.

You go the route of Richard Nixon, who, despite being hated by many and surrounded by the controversy of Watergate, acknowledged the controversy and its ability to affect him in his service to the American people. His speech acknowledging all of this and taking responsibility, despite the idea of quitting being against every bone in his body, became of one of the best Presidential speeches of the 20th century. He left office and public life distrusted and hated, but respected by many for his integrity to accept the consequences.

You can go that way.

Or you can go the way of Joseph McCarthy, who, despite being hated by millions and the controversy surrounding him, relentlessly pursued his Communist Witchhunts. All of his opponents were labeled as Communist sympathizers. Never once did he pause to consider if his acts were detrimental to his call to service of the American people. He earned the shame and the hatred of the American people, and many dedicated their careers to ending his attempts to divide our country. He left public office despised, and he died alone, an alcoholic.

There was once a third way you could have gone, the way of the Reagan you so idolize, loved by many and seen as a uniter, even among his enemies. But that time has come and gone.

And I can assure you, Sarah, that if you go another day without immediately refuting your violent imagery, if you go another moment without realizing the effects your selfish pursuit of fame and fortune are having on the America you love....another option will swiftly pass you by.

You said you quit your job as governor to better serve the American people. We took you at your word, but then you proved incessantly the American people aren't your concern.

But you can make one final gesture to refute it...repudiate it...refudiate it.

Retire from politics, from public life. Announce that you can no longer serve the best interests of your supporters or of the American people as a whole, given the controversy surrounding RSG and Libelgate. Denounce the violence in Tuscon, and apologize for whatever violent imagery you used in the past.

You may never be President...but that one gesture would show some real Presidential qualities.

So...which way will it be, Sarah?

[malaise]

1. It's way too late for that

Yesterday was her final chance and she flopped big time.

[n2doc]

2. You know the answer

"Reload, refudiate!"

[NightWatcher]

3. Train-wreck! Train-wreck! My bet's on a blazing crazy flameout

Punctuated by a spread (yuck) in a men's magazine.

[NuclearDem]

4. Yeah, given her track record, I have no doubt she's going to take my second option...

[SoCalDem]

5. She can do it & regain her support..how?

A news conference where she announces that her young handicapped son is at an age where he needs her desperately, and she's taking a few years off to tend to his needs..

then DO IT!

a few years down the road, she emerges as a candidate for the house or senate, and she's back ...but with perhaps a softer-edge to her....

She could even write a new book about HIS progress and how the family helps him..

(but we all know she won't do that)

[NuclearDem]

8. That would definitely show a little piece of humanity in her...

Rather than just dangling him out in front of all of us and using him as a political tool.

[SoCalDem]

9. and it would probably be helpful to Willow & Piper too

..of course the whole family may be addicted to fame & fortune by now..

[BanzaiBonnie]

6. What's the Facebook note?

[NuclearDem]

7. It was her absolutely botched response to Tuscon

Where she basically blamed liberals for getting obsessed with the Riflescope map and refused to take responsibility for her violent imagery.

She took it down, but no doubt there's a few threads here on DU about it.

[Lancer]

10. FB was where she mentioned "blood libel"

If you decide to be serious about succeeding in public life, there are two things to remember:

(1) Do your job to the best of your ability. If you run into difficulties, ask the right people to help you.

(2) If you make a mistake, and everyone does; admit it, and move on to the next thing.

Palin can do neither.

[NuclearDem]

11. Exactly

Maybe if she takes a few years off and learns all of that, she would be more fit to come back...but I doubt it.

[DaveinJapan]

12. She is no Richard Nixon. nt

[NuclearDem]

13. Eh, maybe not the best analogy...

But thinking "controversy" + "quitting" immediately brought me to Nixon.

[Le Taz Hot]

14. OK, I've got to correct some historical points here.

Nixon did not accept responsibility for his actions until many many years later. From the time he left office until right before he died he continued to blame his "enemies" for his downfall. I remember the interview with David Frost in which Frost asked if he would apologize to the nation and he refused saying he had nothing to apologize for. Nixon absolutely would have continued with business-as-usual, except that back then we actually had a REAL Congress and, after the evidence was so overwhelming that even his staunchest supporters could no longer back him, Kissinger had no other choice but to break the news to him that he had NO support in Congress and that impeachment was inevitable. Only THEN did he resign.

One more point, Nixon lost to Kennedy in 1960 and whined that the press "wouldn't have Nixon to kick around anymore." A move that didn't exactly endear him to the American public and press. Eight years later, guess who's president? Never count somebody like Palin out. She has powerful backers and she serves a purpose -- to bring in the Tea Party Sheeple. She won't be the nominee but after she's defeated in the primaries the PTB will threaten the reich wing crazies with "Obama's Second Term!"

[NuclearDem]

16. Dammit stop ruining my point with you and your...FACTS

Thanks for the correction. :hi:

[Le Taz Hot]

18. Sorry, I was consumed by the Watergate Hearings.

I missed school days because of it. I turned down dates. I gave up weekends. In hindsight I probably should have sought professional help. Anyway, all that was back when Congress actually did the job outlined in the Constitution and held the Executive Branch accountable. Now? Not so much.

[Crankie Avalon]

21. Spot on about Nixon, with one tiny exception...

...He said, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," after he lost the 1962 California governor's race.

[KharmaTrain]

15. When Will People Learn Her Pity Game...

Grifterella's game is to milk the gullible by playing the victim. The more she's attacked, the more she'll play that card and the more her ilk will circle the wagons. Look at how quick after Saturday's shootings her sockpuppets were out there playing the false equivelency game and then how this was an attempt to blame the shootings on Palin. To a limited degree, there's some validity there as we saw with the DU feeding frenzy...and this was all she needed to find a way to grab attention and then throw the victim card. The harsh feedback...even from those within her corrupt party mean little as she's playing to a small base...one she hopes will dominate primaries and throw lots of money at her.

The corporate media is her foil...the more they make her to be the coniving fool she is the better it plays with that base. It's gotten her to where she's at today. She'll keep rolling that dice until it comes up bust...and try to go on from there. Remember, she and her wingnut psycophants live in a parallel universe from the rest of us. It includes a tremendously inflated ego and the feeling that no matter what she says she will always make money or promotion out of it.

[Hannah Bell]

17. agreed. it's calculated. as was her use of "blood libel" immediately after

a jewish politician was shot.

oh, poor me, everyone's picking on me!

and the media is complicit.

and democrats leap to the bait of demagoguery, which is the use of polarizing figures to polarize.

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. Nice summary, but I really don't think she truly understands her words and actions.

She sees millions pouring in the door and a national stage that she couldn't have dreamed of back in the spring on 2008 and she takes that as a sign that she is on the right track and needs to keep on keeping on.

Well done though. You couldn't have made the case any clearer.

K&R

[Javaman]

20. Sociopath/grifters never apologize.

while nixon was a crook, he wasn't a sociopath per say, he was just massive ego man.

failin quitter could never ever hold a candle to Nixon's level of intelligence. While I might not of liked the guy, he certainly wasn't dumb.

failin quitter on the other hand? well, she's about as bright as a dimmer on zero.

So she has to resort to the only gift she has, grifting. She will lie, parse, change, manipulate and edit everything and anything she has said, written or taped in an effort to wiggle herself out of this mess.

That's what grifters do.

You see, unlike a small time grifter, she just can't change her name and move to another town, she has to repaint the past. She has to work the big score of trying to brainwash the mouth breathing public into thinking that she never said any hateful volatile statements.

That's what she's actively doing right now.

It's not in her genetic make up to apologize. It's literally impossible for her. Sociopaths always think they are right. They have no past or at least choose not to give it any mention. What happened yesterday is a distant memory to them.

But what is completely chapping her ass is the fact that she is being linked daily to this incident. She can't just shrug it off. And as a grifter sociopath, that is poison to her.

So she has to try hard and to do reinvent herself really fast to keep ahead of her scam.

She's is racing ahead of the tidal wave.

What she is banking on is, the news cycle changing. She knows if she can stay ahead of the fray long enough, something else will pop up and change the conversation. If she can do that, she believes she is golden.

What I full expect, with in the next day or so, is she no longer playing the victim card (blood libel BS), but to bring up some complete non sequitor. "Sure, I'm the victim but what about the cost of donuts!"

The art of distraction comes next.

Frankly, I think she's panicking a bit. And when people panic, mistakes happen. She's already put her foot squarely in her mouth with the "blood libel" statement, but I honestly believe we haven't seen the worst one yet.

I expect a sputter moment. Where she says something so completely fucking stupid on national tv and then she is called on it, that her only reply is to sputter. It will be than and only then that we all can call her finished.