Somber thoughts on Sarah Palin on a July 4th

This is my first July 4th as an American (headed out to a BBQ and fireworks at a friends' pretty soon). Looking at the internets, I learn that Sarah Palin has quit as being governor. So, some of this thinking is because of this strange confluence of events.

Palin's stated reason for quitting is absurd. If every politician quit 2 years before the end of their term because no one thinks they are credible, then the last 3 years of their term will become lame-duck and so on and so on until even a newly elected politician has no mandate (one could argue that Obama is now behaving as if he has no mandate, letting the Senate and its 60-member supermajority traditions override the clear message of the people who elected him, but that's another story). So, it's not that.

I doubt that it's any scandal coming up to the fore as some Democrats seem to gleefully assume. Rather, I think that she's simply going to cash in on her popularity with the extreme right wing probably with a TV show or a set of speaking gigs. Like Al Gore maintaining coyly that he might run for office so that people would pay attention to his environmental message, Sarah Palin will be coy about seeking further office so that she continues to garner media attention.

Few people in public life scare me as much as Sarah Palin does. Now, this is totally irrational (for a change, it's my irrationality I'm talking about) because she's never said or done anything to suggest that she's a white supremacist. Instead, like the old Biblical adage that you judge a tree by the fruits it bears, I'm unable to disassociate Sarah Palin from the frothing of the crowds she drew during the McCain campaign. So, if she's headed for a non-political role (say as Fox commentator) where she can roil even more people up, that is just all the more scary.