Mayhaps you already have your tickets? Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are hitting the road together next month, along with country singer John Rich (yeah, I’ve never heard of him either) on a
super maverick-y tour called “Taking Our Country Back
”
that’s sure to be filled with grammatically questionable rally chants and lots of white people in Happiness Is a Warm Gun T-shirts. But before your mindhole implodes, consider this: Each event, conference, and pseudo-political “rally” that Palin signs up for is, in my mind at least, a sign that she’s positioning herself more towards talk show host than president of the U.S. of A.
The simplest indication of this came months ago: Future presidents keep their governorships. And they tend not to repeatedly sign up for public appearances that only serve to highlight their hilariously bad character flaws (I’m thinking specifically of the taxes-jotted-on-hand incident). As a future politician, Palin is shooting her own foot with her repeated gaffes and D.O.S.es (Demonstrations of Stupidity), but as a public personality she’s succeeding mightily. There’s still a rabid conservative base that finds resonance with her down-homeness, and now that she’s not a direct threat, liberals enjoy taking her in like they enjoy watching
Keeping Up With the Kardashians
-for the train-wreck entertainment of it all. Maybe I’m assuming too much, but I think Palin’s smart enough to know that she could be wildly successful-and rich-as a paid personality, but she doesn’t stand a chance of gaining entry to the White House. She may very well be our next Oprah, but I’m betting she’s not our next president.
Photograph of Sarah Palin by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images News.
