08 July, 2009

USA: Palin at the prospect




A minor illness and a complete failure of Telecom Italia to repair a line struck by lightning on 26th June have prevented me from blogging recently. Things seem to be working now.....

One thing I missed was the resignation of Sarah Palin. She is a figure I find interesting, if only because she is still making news. The left dismiss her as barking mad, a stupid housewife, and this in itself is enough for sensible people to look for some qualities to associate with her, often without success. But there may, just may, be more.

The Republican Party in America seems for some time to have lost the plot. I remember Reagan saying that the most terrifying words you can hear are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’, but the size of the state increased during that administration, as it did under George Dubya. There is no one really carrying the torch for smaller government and lower taxes in America, even though opinion polls show people increasingly in favour of reducing the size of the state. And it is without doubt this battleground the Republicans must adopt if they are to return to power.

And yet, in a confused ramble, rich in basketball analogy (and therefore unintelligible to most people) we hear this: ‘I keep my eye on the on the ball that represents sound priorities.....energy independence and smaller government and national security and freedom”.

You could wish it were said better, and you could wish it were someone else saying it, but until that happens I believe Sarah Palin will be seen as the Republican front runner. It just might be better if later on in the game, to use her analogy, she passed the ball to someone more likely to get it in the basket.

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