We were going to let Sarah Palin’s speech at CPAC 2013 slide by without much attention, but her performance was too… too… to not get at least a wee bit of attention from POLITUSIC.
First, Sarah Palin’s CPAC speech was quite entertaining, and almost made for a Best or Favorite of the Day, but there was far too much pre-packaged spite in the presentation to merit such a nobel nod as “favorite of the day” on POLITUSIC ;).
What she-who-lost-way-too-much-weight-for-her-CPAC-speech-Palin did achieve, however, was solidify the general idea the the far right wing of the Republican Party is on the downside of the point spread at half time of the Obama presidency. (And, no, that wasn’t being woman-ist or bigoted. If Reince Priebus looked that skelatal I’d tell him to eat more, too.)
Sarah Palin’s speech was very much needed by the conservative wing of the Republican Party, because quite frankly they don’t have much ro cheer about. CPAC is a pep rally after all, and Sarah has always been able to make people smile and get “all riled up” Pailin is, indeed, an excellent speaker and entertainer. No doubt about it. So thought John McCain and so regretted Steve Schmidt.
Nevertheless, cheerleaders are important for any party be it a high school pep rally or getting ready for the 2014 mid-term election. CPAC needed a cheerleader and a comedian to make them feel better. They got both with Sarah Palin. With funny digs here, and plays on words there, she gave a masterful performance. The CPAC audience needed to hear someone make fun of at everyone and everything that the far right thinks are “destroying America.” No one is better at that than Sarah Palin.
Whereas VP Joe Biden tends to be the cheerleader for the left side of the aisle (sadly his comedy tends to be less intended than Palin’s speech), Sarah Palin’s new roll for the Tea Party and far right conservatives seems to be as she started: a cheerleader. Someone who is fun to watch, gets the crowd roaring, and makes us feel better, but doesn’t do anything more than that. When internal fighting has all but torn apart the various bases and factions of the Republican Party, all they can do is hold a pep rally to try and get them to stop tearing one another part during a well-covered conference.
I also call a point of order on anyone who is calling Sarah Palin a good politician. She’s not. Sarah Palin is an entertainer. Just because she can own a stage (yes, that’s directed at you Chris Matthews), doesn’t mean she is good at politicking. Sarah Palin is famous for being good on stage, but also at pissing people off, and not being savvy outside of humor… that’s not what it means to be a good politician. That’s what it means to be a high-paid actor: entertaining and difficult to deal with. The Charlie Sheen of politics.
Every political party needs a cheerleader (and the republican party always seems to need a good actor as well). In Sarah Palin I think the far right has found one of the best in political history. No kidding. If only the left had someone as good at that role. But remember: the party cheerleaders don’t win the end game. Especially when everyone is watching them instead of paying attention to what’s actually happening on the field. The kids at CPAC might have felt better after Sarah Palin’s CPAC speech… but they’re still losing the game.
