Sarah Palin: What now?

Well Sarah? Where to? Alaska I hope - at least, for now. (One thing I learned from that article: Alaskans call the rest of the US "The Outside." That's a bit spooky.)

Sarah Palin, there are just so many loose ends to tie up!


First, there's the clothing scandal. In other words, what happened to all those fancy duds? What's being donated? What will be kept as gifts (and is thus taxable)? If the campaign never intended to keep the clothes anyway, there must be a plan more substantial than "donate them to charity," because, honestly, that seems a little flimsy to me.

Second, with McCain's loss, the Republican Party seems rather disjointed. Who will step up and become the face of Republicanism?

Third, if this person is Palin, how will she dodge all the rumors that she doesn't know whether Africa is a country or a continent? Or, if those rumors are true, how will Republicans handle it?


Kaylene Johnson, author of Palin's biography Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Politics Upside Down, wrote a fascinating piece for CNN about how Alaskans feel about this whole to-do.

Interestingly, this article made me feel a bit bad for Palin. Most of the country had no interaction with the woman before the convention, so did the campaign find it necessary to change how Alaskans viewed her as a Governor? Gone was the woman of cooperation over confrontation, as her bipartisan politics were thrown by the wayside. Is the image of potential VP Palin that America was presented with at all similar to the image of Governor Palin that Alaskans were presented with? Seemingly, no. Perhaps, the "image" constructed around Palin was just another failed part of the McCain campaign - evidence of mismanagement and misjudgment.

I expect that in the coming months (or years) the real story of Palin will emerge. Will she come out to say that the McCain campaign tried to change her politics or how people perceive her? It's something to watch, certainly.