President Sarah Palin?

Forget that the United States is still the second-largest economy outside of the European Union. Forget the United States is the world's supreme military power, spending 45.2% of the entire planet's defense dollars. Forget the role the United States plays around the world. And Forget we are involved in two wars. None of these things factor into the consideration of Sarah Palin as presidential timber. At this moment, as I have written frequently, she touches every hot button issue for the Republican base and the whole idea of competence has simply been abandoned by the Right.

You can see the effect she has on other potential nominees. Mitt Romney gratuitously attacked Obama today over his delay on the Afghanistan decision invoking his own experience as someone who can turn things around. The real focus here was the Sarah Palin media extravaganza and her eclipsing the potential Republican field. Only Mitt Romney will have the financial resources to challenge her for the nomination.

I am operating on several assumptions. I do not believe conservatives can generate any new ideas, which will lend credibility to the Republican Party before 2012. There will be no period of renewal, which is badly needed as the conservative brain trust is exhausted. As we head into the 2010 elections, the base of the Republican Party is no longer conservative but radical right. There are no mature adults left to reign in the tea party foolishness and the party can not control this. Look at the local response to Senator Lindsey Graham when he tried to take on his constituents in South Carolina. They denounced him and later when he suggested a bipartisan approach to the climate change bill the South Carolina Republican Party censured him. The so-called Republican leadership are simply sitting ducks for the extreme right. One only has to see Senator DeMint's challenge to Mitch McConnell for leadership in the Senate.

The Republican obstructionism to President Obama's initiatives is meant to erode and discredit his own presidency but also to lay the ground work for the proposition that government can literally do nothing--except wage wars. Even the alleged escalation in Afghanistan will trigger increased criticism from Republicans of Obama not doing enough.

The extreme political rhetoric that likens President Obama to Adolf Hitler, Mao and Stalin only creates an atmosphere of tolerance for the emergence of the Radical Right as the dominant force in the Republican Party. So the craziest idea will be tolerated and the notion that Sarah Palin can be President will become perfectly acceptable even to conservative pundits in the Beltway.

Palin's endorsement of the Conservative Party nominee in upstate New York over the party's nomination is in line with where the base is now. Note that her endorsement triggered me-to endorsements from presidential wannabes. Right now, Sarah Palin is the queen of the teabaggers and the darling of the religious right. Her only real competition is Mike Huckabee.

Almost all criticisms of her will be discounted as accusations by the Left. In case, one hasn't noticed the Left is basically all secular American society and all the corporate media with the exception of Fox. The fact that the Left is anti-war in Afghanistan and for a single payer option for health care reform is irrelevant. Republicans really, really believe President Obama is a leftist, despite the hysterical laughter at this by the real Left.

But she quit her post as Governor? This only proves she is a citizen politician. She doesn't have extensive policy background in anything. No, problem elites got us into this mess and an average citizen has better sense. She is studiously ignorant of American history and politics. We need a fresh perspective. She lacks the skills to manage a government as large as our federal government. That's why we must cut it down to size. Anything you can throw at her will be tossed aside as irrelevant to the issue at hand.

The Republicans believe they lost the last election because Barack Obama was a fresh face, young and charismatic while John McCain was a dead fish. It was only Sarah Palin--they believe--that ignited the base and made it a closer election than it would have been. Conservatives honestly beieve if she had been allowed to heightene her attacks on Obama's ties to Bill Ayres and Rev. Wright than America would have seen the light. All the polling actually said this hurt the Republican ticket. But we are in the realm of myth and myths have enduring power.

She also comes at a time when the religious right dominates the Republican party but has lost its religious credibility. She is a proud creationist--boldly stated ignorance is now a sign of moxie. Here she's in good company--only 36% of Americans believe in evolution. She is an end-timer so government policies really don't matter because Christ is coming. She is a member of a Dominionist Christian church that espouses the desire to infiltrate and control Government. I have raised this pernicious doctrine with many conservative friends and they simply see no reason for alarm. Her religious views mirror Iran's Ahmadinejad. She is an absolutist against abortion. While Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum could give her a run on her religious beliefs, they simply do not light up the true believers like Sarah.

On national security, she will seal the deal with the neoconservatives, who are an opportunistic bunch. While not considered first-rate, they will believe they can manipulate her to their purposes. They also like having their hooks into someone already rather than shop around. After all her biggest booster to John McCain was Bill Kristol. So we can expect the Bill Kristol-Liz Cheney group to come around to her when it is time.

On the economy, Sarah Palin is basically agnostic. She simply doesn't care and will allow corporations to do whatever they want. Since she backs the tea parties, it is no stretch to see that all the corporations behind the Tea Party Express and the Tea Party Patriots will line up behind her. Mike Huckabee has shown dangerous signs of populism, which makes him suspect to the corporate wing of the party. Sarah Palin already has the support of the oil and gas industry so you can expect to hear her retain her "Drill, Baby, Drill" mantra in 2012.

The NRA already love her and will support her because of her known devotion to hunting and belief in the absolute nature of the Second Amendment.

Republicans believe they have to run someone who is charismatic and can generate enthusiasm at the base. If allowed to shape her own image, Sarah Palin will tout her Eskimo husband and bring out her gaggle of children again. That she has a dysfunctional family doesn't matter because this is the modern American family unit where 30% of children drop out of high school and it's not uncommon for a son who was a juvenile deliquent be given the choice of joining the military. Republicans are sexist enough that they will be very reticient to attack Sarah Palin, while she will enjoy the attack.

When you look at the primary calender, you see Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. For Republicans it is winner take all. So Palin looks good in two out of the first three and Mitt Romney moved to New Hampshire and is betting the Granite state is his firewall. But palin by going libertarian there could just sink his candidacy. Romney would have to be able to hold out until Michigan and even that state's political terrain has changed to the right.

Sarah Palin has the luxury of having the support of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh and the conservative radioheads. Rush tipped his mitt by calling her book the most profound policy book he has ever read. Despite the more jaundiced appraisal of her abilities by established pundits like Charles Krauthammer and Peggy Noonan, her Jerry Springer-type appeal will help create an illusion of popularity. She is the most natural fit for Republicans to our media culture and the perfect vehicle for the Radical Right to gain social acceptance.

Trashing the McCain campaign staff only seems to be dangerous but it tips one off to how Palin will position herself. Steve Schmidt vowed the McCain campiagn was his last. Mark Salter is probably off writing a book with McCain. Nicole Wallace only has a few national campaigns left. So there is little downside to settling scores. But the M.O. is just like when Palin took on the Republican establishment in Alaska and catapulted to fame and McCain's attention. She is the establishment slayer and she hopes to do it again on a national scale.

Could she win the Presidency? With the general deterioration in our political culture, yes. Instead of using social issues as the wedge in close campaigns like Karl Rove was a master in doing, these wedge issues will be central to her campaign. She will play the fear card with a smiling face. She will resort to the old Republican tactic of wrapping oneself in the flag and will campaign at first on America as a Christian nation and then morph into a Judeo-Christian nation for a general election. And, of course, she is all for cutting taxes and putting more power back to the states.

People like myself who think Obama's nuclear deal with Russia is a good thing or closing Gitmo improves our standing in the world are out of luck. The Republicans are still stuck and will be on the Bush-Cheney years as the beginning of time and all diplomatic agreements are useless and America can still act unilaterally in the world. Republicans will run in 2010 as if there was no Depression and that the private sector will create enough jobs if left unfettered by regulation to restore the economy. And they are hoping to stop healthcare reform to show how weak President Obama is. By 2012, the Republicans will be running against a "socialist Jimmy Carter", a weak and vacillating President--someone I call deliberate and rational. If unemployment lingers around 8% and President Obama hasn't taken steps to reduce the deficit, then Palin campaign will be very viable.