The Guardian
Sarah Palin's bus stop
The national tour to teach Americans their history has been cut short. Can we hope that Sarah Palin has learned her lesson?
By Sadhbh Walshe
It's been a difficult couple of weeks for Sarah Palin. The "is she, isn't she?" running for president storyline, which has secured her lavish attention from the mainstream media she ostensibly loathes, lost its lustre the night she failed to show up for the New Hampshire primary debate. And her thunder was stolen by actual candidates who actually declared that they are actually running. This combined with the disappointing stash of emails, which were less interesting for what the revealed (that governing a small state – at least, Palin-style – is about as riveting as organising a garden fete), than what they were short on (substance, policy ideas and yes, OK, scandal). It was enough to send the media running for shelter – or into the arms of more promising replacements like Michele Bachmann.
And so, on Wednesday, we get the news that Palin is quitting her bus tour half way through, as she did her governorship, and returning to Alaska to enjoy the summer. As with many Palin developments, this latest one defies logic and remains shrouded in confusion. Later the same day, Palin took to Twitter to have a good old laugh at the gullible media for believing the bus tour has been abandoned, insisting she's just back in Alaska to do some jury duty. And while the "is she, is she not quitting?" is not quite as engaging as the "is she, is she not running?" question, it's all we are left with for the moment.
The bottom line for now is that all the Americans waiting patiently to be "educated and energised" by Palin's promised history lessons on our nation's founding principles will just have to wait. As it happens, this might not be such a bad thing. Sarah Palin's enthusiasm for history does not match her knowledge any more than her enthusiasm to educate her fellow Americans matches her enthusiasm to educate herself. This reality was painfully played out in the now infamous Paul Revere saga, where Palin claimed Revere's famous ride was intended to warn the British. She later clarified that what she meant was that Revere "warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms". Most experts have averred that while this is not completely inaccurate, it is a highly unusual interpretation.
In Palin's defence, history is a tricky business and certainly open to many interpretations. It tends to be written by the winners, women are often written out of it, but even with those caveats in place, there are some inalienable facts that can't be rendered untrue by modifying a Wikipedia entry. For example, the founding fathers and the founding documents did not intend, as Palin claimed, "that we would create law based on the God of the bible and the ten commandments". We also cannot say for certain, as Palin did, that the founding fathers endorsed the "under God" part of the pledge of allegiance, because they were long dead by the time it was written and even longer dead by the time it was amended to include the controversial phrase. We are not at war with Iran, North Korea is not our ally and Africa is not now, nor ever likely to be, a country.
All of the above claims and misstatements were made by the as yet undeclared possible presidential candidate, who still maintains favourable poll ratings and is still thought to be qualified for the top job by 60% of Republican voters.
Sarah Palin may have failed in her mission to educate Americans, even before her history bus tour was prematurely suspended. There is one big lesson to be learned, however, from all we have seen and heard since the former governor of Alaska invaded our unsuspecting consciousnesses in 2008. Entitled as she is to her private fantasy of becoming president, the time has come for a reality check. Being the leader of the so-called free world is a very serious and demanding job that carries with it the burden of responsibility for the well being of hundreds of millions of people. It is a position for which only a handful of people can hope to be qualified and for which a smaller number still are capable of successfully executing.
Despite her many talents, Palin is not one of these. Let's hope that while she's enjoying the Alaskan summer, she learns to accept that reality. And let's hope that we, who continue to indulge her, can learn to let her go.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/24/sarah-palin-bus-tour-alaska
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