What's Next For Sarah Palin?

The fascination with Sarah Palin by many in the GOP (as well as many independents) continues, as does the vitriol and hatred for her my the Left. Despite the numerous writings by the We-Hate-That-Intellectual-Lightweight-Bitch-Sarah-Palin Democrats disparaging everything about her, here are a number of people out there that like her and what she stands for.

Does she have the chops to become President of the United States? Maybe. Can she be a help when it comes to fundraising and supporting GOP candidates with her speaking engagements? Absolutely. Is she just going to go away? Much to the Democrats disappointment, no.

Here are a few takes on possible futures for the soon-to-be former governor of Alaska.

David Harsanyi presents a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at Palin, wondering what it would be like if she were president.

Can you believe the gall of these Sarah Palin cultists? Presidential aspirations? This is a woman who named one of her kids "Track," for God's sake. (Well, if it really is her kid.)

...running government is no longer a suitable vocation for the bumbling proletariat. It's for folks with schoolin' and such. It's a job for herculean thinkers with degrees from Ivy League schools. In other words, no one from Alaska need apply.

Former sports reporters certainly won't do. We need former constitutional scholars. Who else, after all, has a better understanding of how to undermine the document?

Really, where would we be if a bumpkin like Palin were president? With her brainpower, we probably would be stuck with a Cabinet full of tax cheats, retreads and moralizing social engineers.

If Palin were president, chances are we'd have a gaffe-generating motormouth for a vice president. That's the kind of decision-making one expects from Miss Congeniality.

The job of building generational debt is not for the unsophisticated. Enriching political donors with taxpayer dollars takes intellectual prowess, not the skills of a moose-hunting point guard.

Indeed.

Seriously, could it be that Sarah Plain, by stepping down as governor of Alaska, could become a formidable force within the GOP?

...Sarah Palin has moved herself from the periphery to the center of power in the Republican party. The Party just doesn't seem to know it yet.

By resigning as the Governor of Alaska, Palin has positioned herself as the single most valuable power broker for the GOP in the 2010 elections. Simply put, in close primaries pitting Republican against Republican, and in close general elections for the Senate or Congress, Sarah Palin's endorsement and/or campaigning for a candidate can get that person elected. In addition, Palin can also raise money for a party and for candidates who would otherwise be strapped for cash. These are formidable political powers and only by freeing herself from Alaska will she be able to exercise them.

She draws large crowds when she speaks at party functions, something that became evident during the 2008 presidential campaign. Now that she will will be free of the office of governor, something that became a prison for her due to the harassment she and her office have suffered in the form of endless FOIA requests and numerous ethics violations complaints file against her (all of which were found to have no merit), she will have the time to rally the party faithful. Many of those 'faithful' are the mainstream Americans, those without the Ivy League educations working and living in “flyover country”, a part of the American public too often ignored by the Democrats and, increasingly, the Republicans as well. She appeals to the average American because in the end we see ourselves in her and her family. I doubt that can be said about Barack Obama, John McCain, or any of the other Inside-The-Beltway types from either party.

She's drawn a lot of fire from both the Left and the Right, both for her actions during the campaign and after the election. Both were horrified she could draw support from middle America without the benefit of being vetted or 'prepped' by the Washington elitists.

Peggy Noonan did a hatchet job on Palin in one of her latest columns in the WSJ, trying very hard to discredit her as nothing but an unintelligent country bumpkin with few accomplishments and a sub-standard education because she didn't graduate from the one of the 'right' schools.

She was hungry, loved politics, had charm and energy, loved walking onto the stage, waving and doing the stump speech. All good. But she was not thoughtful. She was a gifted retail politician who displayed the disadvantages of being born into a point of view (in her case a form of conservatism; elsewhere and in other circumstances, it could have been a form of liberalism) and swallowing it whole: She never learned how the other sides think, or why.

Apparently neither has Peggy. She still thinks the Inside-The-Beltway types are the only ones that matter and that no one else need apply. This from a former speech writer for President Ronald Reagan.

As one of the local political pundits here in New Hampshire put it, Sarah Palin has a natural kind of charisma politicians would kill for. It isn't something that can be learned. And that has to piss off a lot of the insiders in both parties because they believe she doesn't deserve it. As if it's their call to decide that one way or the other.

This same pundit stated that while Palin wasn't necessarily up to speed on every aspect of domestic or foreign policy, it was something corrected. (Goodness knows Vice President Joe Biden needs that kind of help.)

I think far too many people have figured she's now done with politics whether she wants to be or not. They have tried their best to destroy her image, to paint her as an idiot (how many on the Left have stated she said she could see Russia from her house when it was really Tina Fey making that claim during an SNL skit), to disparage her family, her background, her ethics? What many of these critics have failed to mention (or admit to themselves) is that none of them would be able to put up with the kind of scrutiny Palin has had to live under.

It would be a mistake on the part of the anti-Palinists to count her out. She may just come back to prove them wrong and to show the rest of America what kind of holier than thou snobs they really are.

I'm looking forward to it.