Sarah's 19th Nervous Breakdown

The monday morning reviews are in from Republican strategists and conservative pundits and there are universally bad for Palin's presidential aspirations in 2012. When conservative Craig Shirley says you're out of the game and Fred Barnes says Sarah has "dashed her chances" for 2012, that's pretty devastating. More importantly, the taboo subject about what a Palin run would bring to the Republicans in 2012 means is now being discussed openly. Republicans are publicly saying a Palin-Obama contests would result in another Goldwater type of landslide loss. While more charitable people are saying she will raise buckets of money for GOP candidates, cash in on her book deal and conclude a television gig--and then will be in the position to run. But I agree with the pundits on this--2012 is out of the question because of the erratic way in which she resigned and more importantly that she resigned with nearly 40% of her term left.

The whole setup for her statement is all wrong. The more we know, it's clear the less the family knew. Today's New York Times reports what I thought--her legal fees were the straw that broke the camel's back. Any fan of Northern Exposure knows that this time of year in Alaska brings days of endless daylight and triggers strange behavior of the state's inhabitants. With the First Dude fishing off Bristol Bay, the eldest children out of the house,the Governor had a lot of time to ponder $600,000 in legal fees and rumors about the circumstances around the building of the very house she was sitting in. I personally think she just freaked. We know her tweetering stopped around Wednesday and only picked up on July 4th.

What possibly forced her resignation? Her own paranoia took hold of her when someone close to her solicited the bizarre Sunday denial by the FBI that she was under investigation. Some have speculated that there were questions surrounding her legal fund and its use. Others claimed housegate was the subject. I tend to think the old rumor about Trig being Bristol's child surfaced again,something which would have sent her around the bend. But, it is curious that around Wednesday the mystery began. Maybe we will never know. It was just the crushing awareness she was totally bored by being governor, the position such an Alaskan nationalist most wanted, on the verge of bankruptcy because of her legal debts, and simply fed up with being the fodder for all kinds of speculation.

The people at the grassroots, who took heart from her Facebook page and its promises of fighting for the revival of America, believe this all was deliberate and a thought-out strategy. Nothing could be further from the truth. This had the hallmarks of being a Stage Five Sulk. And it would not surprise me if she asked to have her position back next week.

Andrea Mitchell is traipsing around in Alaska now and interviews a personal friend, who says,"Sarah is serving out her term in another way." Oh please, don't spare the suspense, tell us. The fact she is spending her remaining time as Governor salmon fishing should raise even further questions.

In alot of ways it's like Susan Boyle and her rise to fame by being a very average person who had one big talent--singing. With moxie she pushed her way into the Britain's Got Talent show and swept people away, only to end up hospitalized because of as nervous breakdown prior to the finals. Happily, she is recording an album now but she is being treated gingerly because of her emotional state. As we have seen in the last few days, Sarah Barracuda is also a front for someone who has shown an amazing degree of sensitivity to criticism, despite her penchant for dishing it out. Sarah Palin has exhibited over the past year several moments of extreme vulnerability--as should be expected when one realizes she really isn't a professional politician at all.

For all the blather about the vicious Left and the mainstream media and the bloggers going after her, I think we will find the culprits inside the Republican Party and people who used to be close to her as the reasons for the bailout. Personally, I would not be surprised if she eventually withdrew from party functions altogether. She would feel more welcome among pro-life groups and other non-party conservative organizations.

In all this, we have commentators raising the issue of the Beltway and media elitists going after her. Aren't there conservative elitists? Isn't Rush Limbaugh, a fabulously wealthy man, an elitist? Isn't George Will, an elitist? Why is elitism only the domain of liberals and the Left? The mainstream media personalities are not so much elitist as wealthy--virtually everyone commenting on the tube earns at least five times the salary of the average American. That's why you saw all of them--even the liberals--raising questions about Obama's miniscule tax hikes for those earning over $250,000.