A Boquet of Tea Leaves for Sarah Palin

A Boquet of Tea Leaves for Sarah Palin

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
Not from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
Yet, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.

            --William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIV

Anybody familiar with this particular sonnet might venture to crucify me for altering two words therein. In my defense, I hasten to explain that having had neither the pleasure nor the privilege to look into her eyes, it would have been grossly presumptuous on my part to keep the "But from thine eyes . . . And, consant stars, . . ." original. That could justifiably have been construed as doing Gov. Palin wrong. Consequently, as the bard himself prescribed,

". . . I rather choose/ To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,/
Than I will wrong such honourable [mom]."

Substituting "Yet" for "And" is simply taking liberty with poetic license in my modest attempt at maintaining what I recognize as contrapuntal resonance and symmetry to the couplet. Likewise, this also acquits my using "mom" for "men" in invoking the Mark Anthony funeral speech.

These subtle but tedious technicalities aside, I concede that prognostication is a thankless task and not in the short list of my favorite vices. Nonetheless, that I consider her a political force to reckon with in the national stage is a matter of public record:

"Not even the engaging charm of Sarah Palin who was far more conservative than MacCain has been for at least 16 years, and had a far stronger executive resume than Obama ever had, could resuscitate the faltering Republican campaign to save the day."

Not only did she energize the Republican Conservative base in the '08 campaign, despite losing, she established her bona fides as a lightning rod to drive both political operatives and their media cohorts absolutely ballistic. In Ann Coulter's ever so deliciously seductive formulation,

". . . they attacked her daughter, who actually is pregnant now, for being unmarried. When liberals start acting like they're opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain's vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels."

It is a priceless political asset to be able to drive your opponents to the edge of hyperbolic hysteria just by being yourself. Take away the oppositions' capacity for a rational discourse and clarity of perception you assured yourself a strategic advantage.

Provided of course, you are equipped with a coherent vision for governance grounded on principles and reinforced with realistic programmatic details. To be viable for the 2012 presidential cycle Gov. Palin needs to sharpen her focus and make sure that she stays on message. She should articulate in the national stage with unmistakable clarity her vision for governance.

She would need a dependable platform that would enable her to enunciate her vision in a proactively consistent manner. She has already proved to be a dependable magnate for financial support:

"Within the first few hours after Palin's name was announced, McCain raised $4 million in campaign donations online, reaching $10 million within the next two days. Which shortlist vice presidential pick could have beaten that?"

Living out her philosophy rather than philosophizing on life is what Gov. Palin is all about. The main reason she gets the vitriol of the traditional career feminists is her putting their hypocrisy in sharp contrasting relief to her reality. She has proved to the world and to the feminists' shame that there need not be any conflict between motherhood and a professional career, politics included. Furthermore, it definitely did not take a village to nurture her brood of five, more than twice above the national average fertility rate for this country.

I have not met her in person but less than fifty pages into "Going Rogue" made me feel like I shared most of her adventures of growing up. I succumb to that exhilarating feeling of having gallivanted away the anxious exuberance of my formative years in the edge of the wilds with her, notwithstanding that I was born in the evacuation camps of WWII Philippines, roughly half a globe away, more than two generations ago, and a civilization removed from her narratives.

She is a breath of fresh air in a political atmosphere traditionally choked with the putrescence of political posturing on just about any issue imaginable. She is the only political figure to have inspired me to design and produce my own yard poster for her '08 campaign which proved to be a solitary yard adornment in a neighborhood demonstrably intimidated to speak out against the Obama/Biden ticket for fear of being branded a racist.

Gleanings from the pantry of history

A review of the list of losing vice presidential candidates that spans from King, Rufus of MA, 1804, 1808 (Federalist) through to Edwards, Johnny Reid "John" of NC 2004 (Democrat) reveals

". . . only one losing VP nominee returned . . . to . . . win the presidency. . . ."

"Franklin Roosevelt was the unsuccessful Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1920, won the governorship of New York eight years later, and used that as a springboard to the White House in 1932. FDR remains the only losing vice presidential candidate in history to eventually become president."

There is however, one historical fact to Sarah Palin's advantage: She was the one losing vice presidential candidate who was a sitting governor. The governorship has been known to be a historical springboard to the presidency. But there are two "what if" scenarios that should come to pass before the stars can align favorably to Sarah's karma, and allow these prognostications to come to fruition.

First, Secretary Hillary Clinton must mount an unsuccessful challenge to Obama for the presidential nomination via a grueling primary election reminiscent of Edward Kennedy's challenge to President Jimmy Carter. Second, Sarah Palin must prevail in a hotly contested issues-intensive primary battle against at least two other contenders for the GOP nomination.

The former would effectively air out the ideological dirty laundry of the Democrats. The latter would sort out the viable principles and strategies for effective governance for the Republicans and enable Sarah Palin's grassroots support to flourish. She already has effectively established a winning record during the 2010 Republican Primary cycle:

"Sarah Palin endorsed three dark-horse candidates in Republican match-ups this year, and all three won their primaries yesterday: Nikki Haley in South Carolina, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Carly Fiorina in California. No wonder Sarah's being stalked by Joe McGinniss."

A batting average of an even 1000, appears to be a compelling prelude to a second act on the national stage. The Boston Globe went even further as to anoint her "the tea party movement's adopted standard bearer," while it hastened to add:

"The polarizing but popular Palin drew wild applause from the crowd with her 22-minute speech, in which she said the government has been on a 'spending spree' and warned of future tax increases. . . .

 

"The fervently antitax tea party movement is a new force in American politics, and its future impact is still being debated. The movement's angry ranks remain a puzzle to Massachusetts politicians."

Describing Gov. Palin as "polarizing but popular" is an exercise in futility couched in irrelevance. It is a lame attempt at hiding the fact that there is very little if any in Sarah Palin that has a faint hint at, or semblance of ambiguity. She is such a straight shooter, so charmingly blunt, that there is no mistaking her meaning. She says what she means, and means what she says, nay, she lives by her words.

If by "polarizing" is meant forcing the voter to take sides on the issues, even if it means everybody is going to the other side, more power to her. A national polity with a clear perception of what the country wants is precisely what the country needs at this critical juncture, when the statist regime reigns supreme. A lukewarm electorate is a fertile ground for mediocrity. What we need is the passion of Omar Khayyam when he implored a few centuries ago,

XCIX


Ah, Love! could you and I with Him conspire

To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,

Would not we shatter it to bits--and then

Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

Just to dampen the evident enthusiasm for Gov. Palin, especially as she relates to the Tea Party movement, The New York Times made certain it pointed out that:

". . . Several Republican candidates did not attend the rally, including Charles Baker, who is hoping to win the party's nomination for governor. And several people at the rally said that while they liked Ms. Palin, they were not sure they would vote for her if she ran for president in 2012."

Both The Boston Globe and The
New York Times are flagship mouthpieces for the Progressive Liberal establishment. It is therefore predictable that they attempt to minimize the significance of both Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement. The Globe's claim that the Tea Party is a new force in American politics simply betrays its ignorance if not deliberate distortion of history. The American Revolution was born out of a network of anti-tax grassroots movements. The slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny" did not historically endure from a rogue journalist's sleight of hand.

As I emphasized earlier elsewhere,

"It is incumbent upon the enlightened citizens, as typified by the Tea Party movement to shore up the political ferment fomented by its opposition to ObamaCare into a formidable political force sufficient to withstand the Obama onslaught and reverse the tide of his statist tyrannical regime."

How any presidential contender is able to galvanize the Tea Party movement and claim its leadership mantle is the most crucial factor for the political viability of that aspirant. This is certainly as true of Gov. Palin as of any other contender. It is already a common knowledge that there is resonance between her and the Tea Partiers.

Whether or not Gov. Palin chooses to run for President still remains to be seen. So far she had demurred from making such commitment. After a taste of the lucrative world of book writing, she may opt out of the rough and tumble of a national campaign. But should she decide to go for it, now is never too early to leverage that resonant relationship towards architecting a full-court press for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2012.

As for my simple self, I'd be content with hollering from the sidelines, with as large a bullhorn as I can get: Run Sarah, Run!

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