What's Next for Sarah Palin?

I've given my take the latest Palin controversy here and here, and outside of that I'm done. I make it a rule not put too much faith in "unnamed sources" (especially when one of the people rumoured to be an "unnamed source" publicly says it's all a bunch of jive), and if you want to believe things that the Governor of Alaska who trades regularly with Canada doesn't know what NAFTA is...whatever. The question now is what does Sarah Palin do next?

To answer that I look to the great philosopher Keigergard, or maybe it was Glenn Frey, who simply said, "Take it Easy." She's scheduled to speak in February at the big Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington D.C. Until then...I wouldn't do a damn thing. Relax. Welcome your grandchild into the world. Enjoy Christmas. Enjoy the New Year. Get back to being Governor. There's really no need to think aboot 2012...especially when there's still 2010 to worry aboot.

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Then, after a few months rest, and after a speech at CPAC that you know is going to bring the house down, it's all a matter of introducing people to Sarah Palin. I say "introduce" as opposed to "re-introduce" because the woman that America has met over the past two months wasn't Sarah Palin as much as it was John McCain's running mate. The job of the V.P. is to do nothing else but advocate for the Presidential candidate, essentially just throw out chunks of red meat to the crowds and stand behind McCain saying, "Yeah, what he said." Palin has her own narrative yet to tell, and to stand on her own record.

An example of this would be the economy. All this talk aboot how bad the economy is...Sarah Palin was the only one running this year that had any economic background whatsoever. As Governor of Alaska she oversees 20,000+ employees and an operating budget of $11 Billion, which $11 Billion more than the operating budgets Obama, Biden, and McCain ran combined. Warren Buffet, life long Dem and a guy who knows a thing or two aboot making money, is a huge fan of hers from their business dealings. Prior to joining the McCain ticket she was interviewed on the business channels all the time, so while MSNBC was calling her an idiot and a Jesus freak, CNBC was saying what a great pick she was.

There were a lot of serious people who saw something special prior to September 1st. The rest of the country needs to meet that Sarah Palin. Boning up on issues I'm not that concerned aboot. When you have cats like Randy Scheunemann (foreign policy), Larry Kudlow (economic policy), and if he's not planning a run himself, Newt Gingrich (domestic policy) all as supporters, there's nothing that can't be learned. And as for energy policy which she's an expert at herself, I seem to recall a certain President-Elect saying that energy independence was going to be a top priority of his first year in office.

The best part is that the people she has to make the case to, the moderates and independents, stopped paying attention Wednesday morning. The right is in the love. The left will hate her no matter what. The middle she needs to impress has gone back to fantasy football. By the time September of 2012 rolls around, they'll see an entirely different candidate. And who's to say she's even going to run in 2012. She's only forty-four years old. If she finishes a second term as Governor she'll still only be fifty, younger than most people who run for President. There's even the chance of Senator, especially if/when current Senator Ted Stevens is expelled from his seat. The main reason everyone's talking aboot 2012 is because, now that 2008 is over, what else are we going to talk aboot?

Sarah Palin has a bright future a head of her, and while it might not be in the next four years, I can't imagine it not being in national politics. There was something else going out there besides "appealing to the base," and even if you believe that the 20,000+ crowds she was drawing were all die-hard Republicans, anyone who doesn't think she can build off of that simply wasn't paying attention.