Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 3

This is the third in a series in which TX4P recommends some of the best writing which chronicles the liberation of Sarah Palin from the ball and chain of the Alaska governors office to her new role as a leading American conservative coalition builder.

Paul Greenberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his editorials, is one of my favorite political writers. One of the best things about living in Northwest Arkansas when I first left my beloved Texas was that I was able to read his work for a number of years in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. So when I discovered his JWR column on Sarah Palin's resignation announcement, I just had to post on it. Here are some excerpts:

The conventional wisdom among the punditry is that Sarah Palin's latest bombshell is a dumb move, or "absolutely bizarre," to quote one of those political analysts, Larry Sabato, who's famous for being famous, or at least for being inescapable on the tube.

But lest we forget, Governor Palin wouldn't be the first American politician to strike out on an unorthodox route to national leadership. Or just to take her show on the road for a while. There once was a B-movie actor who, when his career finally gave out, signed on as a pitchman for free enterprise and other ideas then considered hopelessly outmoded. Remember the intellectual climate when Ronald Reagan was the spokesman for General Electric?

He was dismissed as a throwback — just another pretty face — when he was traveling from plant to plant perfecting his political appeal. Who knew that Keynesian economics would give way to Milton Friedman's kind, and that Ronald Reagan would go on to be elected governor of California, and then to another political office of some note? In which capacity he would preside over the revival of the American economy and dream after the disastrous Carter years. And, while he was at it, he would see the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union with it...

As was the case with Ronald Reagan, who was also dismissed as a less than serious type, Sarah Palin has a quality that appeals to a broad base of Americans who sense the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Other posts in this series:

Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 1
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 2

- JP