Go Away, Sarah

Emily, Hanna, Jess, Rachael, if Sarah Palin were Sam Palin, would anyone still be interested in her? Dan Quayle was a good-looking, young, conservative, politician who, in his roll-out as a vice-presidential candidate, impressed everyone as being a dope who was in over his head. Yes, he got to serve as vice president, but beyond his spelling of “pototoe” and denunciation of Murphy Brown (and I agree with him that unwed motherhood should not be glamorized), he is little remembered and has blessedly slipped out of public life. I had no idea who Sarah Palin was until her convention debut. It was a corker of a speech (written, of course, by someone else) and it showed that she had magic before a crowd, which is no small thing. However, what she has demonstrated ever since is that she is nothing but a personality. She apparently in her book tries to make a virtue of her ordinariness as a qualification for office. But who cares whether you come from a modest or privileged background if you think you can be president of the United States without the vaguest understanding of—or willingness to study(!)—the issues of the day. So after she was unable to finish out a single term as governor of Alaska, here we are talking about her and what her political future holds. Oblivion, I hope.