PJ: This writer is not alone in his views. US politics remains a popular recreation for many around the world and people like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin earn so many laughs that a comedian would turn green with jealousy. Of course, when those same people are confronted with the real possibility that Palin or Gingrich might be the leader of the free world, the laughter stops and the head shaking begins.
Digital Journal
Op-Ed: Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin? Now that's entertainment!
By Marcus Hondro
olitics can be enjoyable. Let's start there. They're entertaining. Yes, things of import are going down but politics can be flat-out fun. But here in Canada Steven Harper is not fun and politics have been dull since Pierre Trudeau retired. Solution?
For many Canadians a solution for dull politics is to turn to America and more often we turn to the Grand Old Party, the Republicans. There's never a dull moment when casting eyes toward the Republicans and Newt Gingrich has given us the most recent fun by suggesting that if he wins his party's nomination for the Presidency
he might give us I Can See Russia From my House, Part Two.
Sarah Palin: 'One of the possibilities"
I don't know why it hadn't occurred to consider the specter of the former governor of Alaska back on the political mainstage in America as a running mate. Maybe because she just put her country through an interminable stretch of 'will she run or won't she' and wasted whatever brownie points she might have had left with the electorate. Of perhaps the new reality show she's trying to get off the ground threw me. Or maybe because she did so poorly the first time?
But, says Newt, Sarah Palin it just might be. "She is certainly one of the people you would look at," Mr. Gingrich said on Dec. 28 on a call-in show. "I am a great admirer of hers and she was a remarkable reform governor of Alaska, she's somebody who I think brings a great deal to the possibility of helping in government and that would be one of the possibilities."
Gingrich was at something called a Tele-Town meeting held by the Faith and Freedom Coalition when he made those remarks. He was asked by a caller "If you’re fortunate enough to be nominated, would you consider having Sarah Palin as your running mate?" The correct answer of course, given a blanket 'no' might harm his chances of winning the nomination, is this: "I'm sorry, that line seems to be breaking up. Let's move on to the next caller."
Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin: Double Your Fun
Gingrich's been worth watching over the years. Sometimes things got serious, e.g. he's the only speaker of the house in 220 years to be disciplined for ethical wrongdoing. Other times it's been just plain fun, like when he blamed his infidelities over the course of 3 marriages on his love of America: "There's no question at times in my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate."
As for Palin, a listing of the fun items that she's given us would be as long as the road to nowhere she built in Alaska. Like her run-on sentence on Paul Revere's midnight ride: "He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
It's not likely they would win together - or even apart - but if Gingrich, who increased his chances of taking the GOP nomination by pulling a Hilary Clinton and tearing up during a recent campaign speech, does become the Republican candidate then we could do worse than Palin. Which is another way of saying that we could get someone boring.
Though that is something the GOP rarely is.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/317095
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