Sarah
Palin and Michelle Bachmann: Will they put the kibosh
on
future Republican women seeking to win the White House?
News, Switzerland
Bachmann-Palin: Twilight
of the Female Republican Gods?
"This raises the question of whether with these Tea-Party goddesses, Republicans want to ensure twilight for their party by undermining the electability of female Republicans for a long time to come. Because in the end, few will remember the dubious Santorums, Christies, Johnsons or Cains. But Bachmann and Palin will long cling like female portents to the walls of our consciousness."
Sarah Palin is probably known
by everyone. The Tea Party icon from Alaska who was selected as a way to boost John
McCain’s presidential hopes in effect helped sink his candidacy against
Barack Obama, because rather than attract voters, she frightened them away with
her interviews, her appearance and her lack of experience.
That didn't stop her from
chucking her post as governor of Alaska in mid-2009, subsequently star in
an outdoor reality show and publish an autobiography that she hadn't written to
pave the way for a possible presidential campaign in 2012.
Thus, while she became the
most public person in the United States, she fought
tooth-and-nail to prevent e-mails from her nepotism-marked term as governor of
Alaska (which in Alaska, however, is the norm) from being made available to the
public.
Although there are now nearly
25,000 pages to be published, over 2,000 remain closed, along with the great
number of e-mails she apparently sent illegally via her private e-mail account -
even though they dealt with official business.
Despite her popularity among
a large portion of right-wing Republicans, Palin hasn't yet dared announce her candidacy.
Many observers seriously doubt that she really intends to, and that she simply
wants to take advantage of the attention to retain her market value. On the
other hand, a “no-show” would seriously damage her reputation, even among her
faithful followers, and even though she could excuse herself by saying that her
knowledge of history needs an urgent brush up (this, after she twisted the
story of American Revolutionary hero Paul Revere beyond
recognition last week - which immediately became a YouTube sensation).
But her fans might have an
alternative with similar goals who they can throw their sympathies behind - and
one who also cannot be dissuaded from making catastrophic historical gaffes:
Michelle Bachmann. It was Bachmann who claimed at a New Hampshire fundraiser that
the revolutionary battles of Lexington and Concord
took place in that state. However, both places are now - as then - located due
south, in the neighboring state of Massachusetts, which in New Hampshire is
regarded as left-of-center. And it wasn't a slip of the tongue - because she
had specially prepared her speech for that fundraiser and was apparently too
lazy to take a moment to look it up on Wikipedia.
Even more glaring was her
statement in January, when she claimed that the “founding fathers of the United
States worked tirelessly until slavery was abolished,” a statement that is
simply, utterly wrong. Likewise, various other slip-ups don't seem to be keeping
her from striving higher and aiming for the White House. In any case, her
statements suggest that she'll be the first female contender in the Republican
field.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
So perhaps all Sarah Palin is
waiting for is Bachmann, who, among other things, also never tires of
interpreting every political development as a sign of the coming apocalypse
(which each attempts to support with Biblical verse) - because then Palin will know
for sure that she'll appear triumphantly competent compared to at least one candidate
in the Republican field.
Not that the other already announced
Republican nominees are that much better than Bachmann and Palin. The only
one as strikingly bad as these two was Donald Trump, who has tucked tail and gotten
out.
Which raises the question of
whether with these Tea-Party goddesses, Republicans want to ensure twilight for their party by undermining the
electability of female Republicans for a long time to come. Because in the end,
few will remember the dubious Santorums, Christies, Johnsons or Cains. But
Bachmann and Palin will long cling like female portents to the walls of our
consciousness.
