Will Palin become a political figure on the national scene, or just a bad memory?

There are those who think that Sarah Palin is destined to become a leader of the conservative political movement, even though one poll taken recently shows only 23 percent of the electorate thinks favorably of the one-time Alaska governor.

Actually, that figure sounds about right to me. One in four people is about how big I always figured the conservative movement to truly be, even though it consists of people who deliberately isolate themselves from the bulk of society so that they rarely come into contact with others.

WHICH ALSO EXPLAINS the fact that Palin is now doing a book tour that deliberately ignores large cities and hits the smaller towns (as comedian George Lopez recently put it, she’s ignoring all the places where people actually read) that usually get overlooked when it comes to pseudo-literary events.

Now I am not among those who signed up in advance to have a copy of her book reserved for me (so many people did do so that the book was a “best-seller” before a single copy was sold).

Part of it is that I have rarely been one of those people who feels the need to get something the instant it hits the stores. I actually think that those kind of people waste time with the actions they take to ensure they’re “one of the first” to see something.

It’s not like her book gets any better if you’re the first in your particular community to read it.

AND YES, I still feel a bit burned by the fact that I did go so far as to buy a copy of “The Governor” by Rod Blagojevich. As prose, it was pedestrian. As a source for political insight, it was dreck.

So I’m willing to wait a bit before reading Palin. She can blame the lack of a sale to me on Blagojevich, if she wants.

I doubt that Palin is capable of writing anything any better than Milorod. For those of you who argue she was once a journalist, I’d respond she was just a small-town broadcaster who moved on with her life because she couldn’t (or didn’t want to) hack it professionally.

So what should we make of this new volume, the early reports of which are focusing on the fact that she is critical of her running-mate, two-time presidential candidate John McCain.

SHE THINKS THE senator from Arizona ran a campaign in 2008 that was unfocused, did not properly bash Barack Obama about, then tried to dump all the blame upon her when it failed on Election Day.

Some would argue she’s being ungrateful toward the official who put her in a position to become a national political figure (it’s not like Alaska governors who can’t bring themselves to finish the one term they were elected to are going to be in great demand otherwise) in the first place.

But to me, it makes all the sense in the world for her to distance herself from McCain. She wants that 23 percent of the population to think of her as the opposite of the man whom some conservatives in this country were always wary of (they rejected him for George W. Bush in the 2000 GOP primary, and likely would have in ’08 if they had been able to get their support organized behind a single conservative primary opponent).

She’s going to be working the Books-a-Million and the Wal-mart book sections and other places of small-town America that carry a few books mixed with Bibles and some trashy magazines.

PALIN WILL SIGN those books and toss out “you betchas” and try to craft an image for people who are inclined to believe anyone who tells them the country went askew on that day back in November of 2008 when Todd Palin was denied the chance to be the vice-president’s spouse (instead, we get Jill Biden).

She’s reaching out to the 43 percent of Southern Republican people whom a recent poll (commissioned by The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C.) said were pleased when Rep. Addison G. “Joe” Wilson, R-S.C., shouted “you lie” at Obama when he talked about the need for immigration reform.

By comparison, only 11 percent of Southern Republicans were offended by Wilson’s behavior, compared to 48 percent of Democrats who thought Wilson showed himself to be a boor.

Palin wants their support. She may solidify it. But I wonder if in the process, she is cementing an image that will never appeal to anyone outside of the 23 percent support she has now?

THERE ARE THOSE people who claim that the more liberal elements of our society who are upset Obama is not acting fast enough on their pet issues will simply not vote in the 2010 elections, thereby making it possible for Republicans to make electoral gains.

Will Palin be the excuse come the 2012 elections that moderate Republicans use to sit back and refuse to cast ballots, thereby allowing Democratic political candidates to regain anything they may supposedly lose next year?

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What would Burris think of Palin?

Their announcements took place about one week apart, and the end result of both political officials is that their careers doing “the people’s business” are effectively over.

I’m writing, of course, about the soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the can’t-leave-soon-enough-for-some Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill.

YET IT IS with the two of them that perhaps we ought to think seriously about the concept of “lame ducks” – that breed of politician who knows he’s history, but still remains on the government rolls for a little while longer.

In the case of Palin, the reason she allegedly is leaving her political post later this month is that she doesn’t think she can accomplish much as a “lame duck” governor – she realizes that the powers-that-be are not about to do a thing for her.

Of course, she spins her reasoning to try to give herself a high-minded purpose in resigning now rather than finishing the four-year term to which the electorate of Alaska chose her back in the 2006 elections.

Lame ducks are merely people living off the government teat, enjoying the perks of a political post while being unable to do anything for the public good. In short, they’re a waste of space (and a government paycheck).

YET BURRIS SEEMS to think otherwise.

When he announced last week that he is not going to run for re-election because he does not see he has the ability to do the kind of fundraising needed to run a serious political campaign, he claimed that he will now be one of the few public officials who will be able to focus his time on “the people’s business.”

Public policy will be his goal for the 18 months remaining on the term he’s finishing up for Barack Obama (who resigned with about two years remaining so that he could be the guy who gets to throw out the first pitch at the baseball All-Star Game to be played Tuesday in St. Louis).

So who’s right? More importantly, which of these two political has-beens (whether they realize it or not, both of them have seen their best days) is more absurd in his/her logic?

NOW I REALIZE a lot of people reading this commentary are going to suddenly shift into a politically partisan mode. It is going to be what decides this question for their mentalities.

Those who are inclined to oppose Obama and the current partisan leanings of the federal government are going to claim that of course Palin is correct, while those in support are going to find ways to back Burris.

And I must admit my own partisan leanings (I’m a Democrat largely because I see that party as the one that keeps urban America’s interests in mind) impact my viewpoint.

In theory, Burris is correct, and I must admit that I am pleased with the way the situation for Illinois’ representation in the U.S. Senate has turned out (Roland, Roland, Roland gets to be the fill-in through next year, while the voters of Illinois will decide in the 2010 elections who gets the post for the long term).

THOSE OF YOU who think Roland should resign and are going to start screeching for a special election need to get a grip. Do we really want to go through the mess of an election in 2009, only to repeat the process in ’10?

It seems so wasteful of the tax dollars that would be spent to conduct such special elections, which is money we in Illinois really don’t have to spare these days. That ought to become blatantly apparent in Springfield on Tuesday when the Legislature gets one last crack at doing something to pass a balanced budget before there have to start being serious cuts – we’re that far into the fiscal year that began 13 days ago.

But back to Burris. The reason I write “in theory” is that I realize the baggage that some people are determined to attach to Roland (because they despise the memory of Rod Blagojevich that much) probably makes it difficult for Burris to be a political heavyweight in the U.S. Senate.

He may try to take on some serious issues, but he’d be better off (as would the people of Illinois) if he realized he’s just there to vote on our behalf on the bills that come before the Senate.

REPRESENTING OUR INTERESTS, rather than his own ego, could be the best thing Roland could do to overcome the absurdity that has developed around his reputation during the past six months.

He could leave with a little bit of dignity. Go for it Roland.

That is more than Sarah Palin will leave with. Admittedly, she’s younger and theoretically still has a future ahead of her.

But Palin is one who despite her youth and political inexperience has managed to make many enemies and has given herself a neophyte reputation that she will never overcome.

IN THAT SENSE, she truly is Daniella Quayle (We’ve got to credit the New York Post for coming up with that label).

I honestly believe the only chance she had to redeem herself was to suddenly get serious with the ways of Alaska government and politics. Show that she really does have some substance.

Instead, she tries to bill her departure as the substance, which is just ridiculous. She may very well wind up with some sort of conservative think tank that allows her to build up a reputation of support among the far right, but that just won’t do when it comes to a national election and where any candidate who tries to get elected despite the opposition of the masses is doomed to failure.

In short, I can’t help but look at these two officials, and think that the irony is that in Sarah Palin, we finally have found a public official who makes Roland Burris’ performance of the past six months look downright competent by comparison.

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Palin, who has peaked, tries to leave on top by quitting gubernatorial post

Many of the political pundits who are trying to analyze Sarah Palin’s decision to give up her post as governor of Alaska later this month are figuring she wants to focus her attention on running for president in 2012.

I can kind of see the logic.

IF SHE IS going to be a credible candidate for the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, she needs to start working now. And if she is to become a national political figure, continued involvement on the Statehouse Scene in Juneau can do little more than drag her down.

But I can’t help but wonder if a part of her decision is based on the sentiment that there’s little more she can do to change her reputation in her home state. Could it be that the statewide elections to be held in the 49th State in 2010 would have created a perfect opportunity for someone to knock her down for the count?

Literally, is she quitting now so she can claim she left office on her terms, rather than as the losing candidate for re-election in the 2010 elections?

Some people might claim she’s doing an honorable thing by not running for re-election as Alaska governor in 2010, then immediately turning around and running for president while keeping the paycheck and benefits that are part of the compensation of being governor of Alaska.

BUT THE “HONORABLE” thing is something that political people rarely do. Even the most exceptional of public servants have a pragmatic streak when it comes to running for elective office.

And Palin, as we saw last year during the campaign season, is hardly exceptional (although I realize that some people consider her ordinary-ness to be her political strength).

Her decision to resign as governor effective July 26 (how nice, she’s giving the people of Alaska roughly three weeks’ notice of her intent to quit) is risky.

Because a public official without an elective office is nothing. That is why even the most exceptional public servants develop the pragmatic streak. It is next to impossible for them to do anything for the public good if they lose on Election Day and are sitting on the sidelines.

BUT I GUESS she figures that she developed such good name recognition in the 2008 election cycle that she can go for the next year-and-a-half without a political post.

Because the chances are that all Alaska would have done for her now is dragged down her chances of success. All it would have taken was one budget crisis to confront Alaska state government or one stupid act of political corruption by a state official.

Watching Palin show us her gubernatorial skills would have created the potential for her to screw something up, which would take her down for good. How can we take seriously the thought of Palin as president when she can’t even govern Alaska?

There’s also the fact that she was only a first-term Alaska governor. Like any other political official, the first re-election bid is the toughest because the benefits of incumbency haven’t yet kicked in.

THE PEOPLE WHO are upset their preferred candidate lost to her in 2006 would have been geared up for a challenge in ’10. Others who were embarrassed by her ’08 vice-presidential candidacy would have been inclined to work against her.

But by quitting now, none of that will ever happen. In her mind, she will be the golden girl who put Alaska politics on the national map (even though I’d argue Ted Stevens is more of a national political figure than Palin could ever dream of being).

I’m curious to see what she does to create a presidential image for herself during the next year. Will she wind up drawing a salary from some conservative think tank while she tries to put together the infrastructure of a presidential campaign?

Some of the political pundits already are suggesting she’s going to have to spend more time in the District of Columbia and on the mainland United States to bolster her professional image. She has to show there is something going on “upstairs” and that she’s not just some dim bulb who inspires stupid jokes about “lipstick.”

COULD SHE WIND up moving outright? Or are we going to get the political illusion of someone who maintains the Alaska home address while really living in D.C.? Or, since she’s a Republican, the D.C. suburbs in northern Virginia.

It’s kind of a shame she couldn’t move to Illinois. A part of me thinks she’d fit in well in those outermost suburbs of Chicago.

You know where I’m referring to – places like the towns of Kendall County where the locals are split on whether they’re really becoming suburban or should remain rural.

At the very least, it would let Illinois have possession of the craziest governor again.

ON THE SAME day that Palin let it be known she’s quitting, it was announced that she won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ “Sitting Duck Award,” which is given to the most ridiculed newsmaker of the past year.

It turns out that Palin beat Rod Blagojevich for the title (he finished second).

So that could be a fact we Illinoisans ought to take into account when we ponder Blagojevich and his erratic behavior and the conduct of his wife, Patti.

Being mocked by a nationally known comedian for being able to “see Russia from my house” tops having a funky pompadour hairdo and a foul-mouthed wife who eats tarantulas on television.

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Palin e-mail break-in a sad saga

I would have been inclined to be sympathetic with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for getting her personal e-mail account hacked – until I learned that one reason the Alaska governor uses her personal e-mail for state business is to get around requirements that her official government communications be made public.

Basically, all e-mails she sends via her state account become public record under the state’s Open Records Act.

IT IS WHY the political dirt-diggers have been trying to get to her official e-mails, in hope they can find something incriminating that could be used against her during the next seven weeks prior to the Nov. 4 elections.

If anyone found anything that seriously reeked of criminal activity, such official state messages could be used as evidence in future criminal proceedings. Even without charges, tidbits written in the informal manner most people use when knocking out e-mail messages would be embarrassing (particularly if she’s one of those people who uses cutesy spellings or ridiculous symbols in her messages).

But if Palin is using a private service to send out state government messages, that is a deliberate attempt to evade detection.

There’s a reason public officials should not be using Yahoo! to send their official messages, and not just because Yahoo!’s security measures are less than ideal for government purposes.

GOVERNMENTS GO TO some expense to create their own personal e-mail systems (along with their websites). Because such communications are ultimately “the people’s business,” it is not ridiculous to expect that such information ultimately be accessible to the public.

There’s also the fact that it is important to maintain a certain separation between government and campaign business. Palin herself is aware of that fact. Seriously, I couldn’t help but notice that several portions of the Alaska government website contains the following disclosure:

“Alaska law prohibits the use of state equipment or resources for campaign or partisan political purposes. Please do not send any messages concerning campaign or partisan political activities to this e-mail address or any other state of Alaska office. Also, please do not send donations, contributions or written correspondence to the state Office of the Governor or any other state of Alaska office. Information about elections and candidates can be found by calling, writing or e-mailing a campaign office for that particular candidate.”

Does using a personal account for government business indicate a willingness to use that same account for campaign business? Do we literally have the chance that government and campaign business are being commingled in an improper manner?

I DON’T HAVE evidence that she is doing any such thing, but it creates the appearance of impropriety.

It certainly becomes a question to be asked – Are Alaska taxpayers being asked to provide support for Palin and her attempt to prop up the campaign of Republican John McCain at a time when the bid of Democratic opponent Barack Obama was threatening to blow it away?

She certainly benefits because, even if the Republicans lose the Nov. 4 elections, Palin now becomes a nationally known political figure. Alaska will certainly get more attention in the future with Palin in office for at least two more years in her current term.

There is a reason why people who use e-mail for the delivery of significant correspondence need to maintain all their different accounts, and why it is such a “big deal” when people spend their time at work goofing off by sending personal e-mail messages on their employee e-mail accounts.

I’D HATE TO think Palin didn’t realize that. If she was really that clueless, then she truly is unfit to be in the line of succession to working in the Oval Office.

But since I don’t think she was truly that clueless, this whole issue makes me think Palin is just one of those people who thinks that she has a right to do government business in private.

Isn’t that the mentality we have had too much of during the past seven-and-a-half years? Is this really what McCain envisions when he claims he will shake up the D.C. establishment? It’s no wonder that a recent Gallup Organization poll showed that only 3 percent of people who want serious change in government say they will vote for McCain (compared to 37 percent for Obama).

Not that I’m in defense of the wormy people who hacked their way into her e-mail account. I have never understood what it is about “hacking” that causes some people to get such a perverse thrill from it – aside from the fact they have too much free time on their hands.

I WON’T BE the least bit offended if the Secret Service and the FBI crack down on somebody, even though I have noticed some Internet comment section pundits seem to think this whole thing was a teenage prank that should be treated as such.

It becomes a pain in the derriere to have to reset an e-mail account because some twit decided to mess with you. I know from experience, since someone a couple of months ago managed to mess with the e-mail account associated with this weblog and its sister site, The South Chicagoan.

That was probably someone’s idea of a prank. It was really a waste of time.

And there actually is one individual whom I do feel sorry for in all of this – Bristol Palin.

SHE’S THE 17-year-old daughter of the Alaska governor who has had her teenage pregnancy turned into a focus of national gossip. Now, because the person who hacked their way into Sarah Palin’s e-mail also got access to her account lists of e-mails and telephone numbers, Bristol’s cellular telephone number was briefly made public.

Just imagine how many horny teenage boys saw that number, mentally inserted the words “For a good time, call …” in front of the number, then called. The hassle and embarrassment she went through until having that number changed is disgusting.

But perhaps it was appropriate to think of that piece of information as being the equivalent of a piece of bathroom graffiti. There are times when the content of sites available only via computer screens, and the ways of the Internet in general, seems like it belongs in the toilet.

Now, if only we could flush.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Sarah Palin inadvertently gave away in her Republican convention speech (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-palin-hacked,0,2207794.story) the personal details that enabled someone to change Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail account password.

Want to contact the Alaska governor? Here (http://gov.state.ak.us/govmail.php) is the form allowing one to send an e-mail message to her official state government account.

The same methods used to hack their way into Palin’s personal e-mail account could just as easily be used (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10045407-16.html) to get into your account. Have a nice day!

Palin won't sway voters to McCain

Now that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has got his bounce (an 8 percent lead on Friday, if one believes the Gallup Organization), the real question is how far will Republican opponent John McCain manage to cut into it with his choice of a vice presidential nominee.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the first woman nominated to be at the top-of-the-ticket pairing for the Republican Party. That is significant in the same way that Don Baylor being the first African-American manager of the Chicago Cubs was something – the cross-town White Sox had their first black manager nearly two decades earlier.

OF COURSE, FIRST female vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro (1984) was on a losing political party ticket. Palin could be the first winner – but that is going to depend on what people think of her partner.

Ultimately, the 2008 presidential contest will be a battle between Obama and McCain. In the same way that the selection of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., did not give the Obama campaign a big boost at the beginning of the week, it is unlikely that the presence of Palin will make much of a difference in coming days.

McCain’s best shot of closing that gap in the polls (the two were virtually tied at the start of the Democratic National Convention) is to have an equally invigorating performance when his party convenes in St. Paul, Minn.

Showing that he is not a doddering old man who will just continue the policies of the Bush years (because he’s too old to have any thoughts of his own) is the way he knocks the Obama campaign back down to size.

PERSONALLY, I WON’T be the least bit surprised if the two campaigns are virtually tied (McCain will probably have a slight lead within the margin of error) when the GOP convention is over a week from now.

In fact, it may do the Republican National Convention a world of good if Hurricane Gustav impacts the United States. Party officials have talked of postponing their nominating convention out of respect to potential hurricane victims.

Sparing us the sight of people wearing red/white/blue clothing would make them appear to be the party of compassion – even if the gesture itself doesn’t really accomplish much. Will anybody whose property suffered hurricane damage recoup their losses because we didn’t get to see a GOP delegate from Montana wearing a silly hat with an elephant snout protruding from it?

I’m not convinced that the presence of Palin is going to mean much (although I must admit to enjoying the trivial tidbits in the early round of stories that told us Palin was nicknamed “barricuda,” has eaten burgers made from ground moose meat and is married to an Aleutian Indian, a.k.a., an Eskimo).

IN LARGE PART, I think the presence of a woman on the Republican ticket is a wasted gesture. Many of the people who comprise the GOP’s hard core supporters these days are those who think the problem with modern day society is that we are too concerned with including people from a variety of groups – rather than just trying to get, “the best qualified person.”

Will the presence of a woman (even one whose views on social issues such as abortion are as conservative as anyone else already in the Republican party) on the ballot turn off those Republicans who don’t want to have to consider gender when casting their vote?

Many of these people are the ones who entered the election season wondering if McCain is a closet liberal because his personal views on issues such as immigration are more sympathetic to those affected than their own views are.

It almost seems to me that McCain is counting on the fact that those conservatives will be more repulsed at the thought of voting for a biracial man than they would be in voting for a pseudo-cowboy from Arizona who’s using a pseudo Aleutian to try to attract votes.

HE ALSO SEEMS to think that the Democratic supporters of former candidate Hillary R. Clinton were just voting for her because of a lack of a certain private part. In fact, it would seem that McCain thinks he will get more Clinton backers to vote for him than he will lose conservatives to the third-party candidacy of Bob Barr.

But I can’t help but think that abortion stance, and her willingness to accept much of that “frontier” attitude (thinking of themselves as the original settlers of a land populated by the Aleutians for centuries) found among white people who settle into Alaska, will turn off the most liberal women who might have a problem “getting over” Hillary’s loss.

If anything, this cynical gesture could very well be what causes a larger share of women to decide that both the Obama and McCain campaigns are full of it, with neither one worthy of a vote.

It also will hurt any chance that the McCain campaign could seriously try to argue Obama (with 12 years as an elected official and a decade of work as a community organizer) has a weak public policy resume. If anything, McCain has now opened himself up to claims he is nothing more than George Bush the elder, picking a running mate as equally inexperienced as the one-time senator from Indiana, J. Danforth Quayle.

THINK I’M EXAGGERATING?

“Palin = Quayle,” read the New York Daily News website on Friday, while some Internet sites with comments sections already are seeing people refer to Palin as, “Daniella Quayle.”

At the very least, the Biden/Palin debate will be interesting to watch (possibly moreso than any of the Obama/McCain debates that will take place this autumn). Outside of the decision to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (she supports it, while McCain does not), does anyone see an issue that will come up where Biden will not whomp on her?

In fact, the first-term governor’s only chance of winning a debate will be if Biden goes so overboard (never overlook the chance that a politico will overreact) that people get the perception that she’s being bullied.

IN ONE REGARD, McCain succeeded with his pick for a running mate. On the day after Obama gave his much-debated acceptance speech (which caused Oprah’s eyelashes to wash away due to her tears of joy), the senator from Arizona managed to shift the attention of political observers back to himself.

But did he do so in a way that will translate into votes, or just some snickers? And I don’t mean the candy bar.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Did the choice of Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s running mate on the 2008 presidential ballot (http://bourbonroom.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/08/29/obamas-plane-palin-problem/) really come as that much of a shock to Democratic nominee Barack Obama?

This commentary is an exaggeration. But McCain may have turned off more potential voters (http://www.opednews.com/articles/Worse-Than-Quayle-by-Trapper-John-080829-414.html) than he pleased with his choice of a running mate. For what it is worth, the Palin/Joe Biden debate will take place (http://debate.wustl.edu/index.php) Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Chicago Tribune has been supportive of Obama’s political aspirations. But in this editorial critiquing Obama’s acceptance speech, the one-time Voice of Midwestern Republicanism (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-080829-obama-speech,0,4038059.story) gives us a clue how it will overcome its hometown ties and justify endorsing the McCain campaign.

Trivial pursuit, political style

The 2008 presidential election will either be the campaign that gives this country its first president from Hawaii, or its first vice president from Alaska. Either way, the parts of the United States that are not part of the mainland will experience a boost.

Now all we need is to get a serious political candidate from Puerto Rico or Guam to run for office. Or perhaps Bill Richardson (born in California, his mother is Mexican and he was raised as a child south of the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande) has learned from his mistakes of 2008 and could run a more serious campaign for president in the future?

FOR WHAT IT is worth, the Alaska governor’s office gives us its view of the future of electoral politics. Sarah Palin’s official government website (at www.gov.state.ak.us/bio.php/) includes an official biography for gubernatorial spouse Todd Palin – her high school sweetheart.

The link to his portion of the site refers to him as the, “First Gentleman.”

And on a final (if somewhat disgusting) note, how much would one of Oprah’s eyelashes be worth on eBay? You know, one of the tear-soaked ones she wore at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s acceptance speech?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Wasilla, Alaska, has managed to more than double its population during the past two decades (http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx) since local woman Sarah Palin got involved in politics, both as its two-term mayor and for the past 20 months as governor. Of course, the number of people who call Wasilla home still remains below 10,000.