I appreciate that no one has been telling me what Sarah Palin’s up to for a while.

It’s funny that Sarah Palin happened in part because Alaska was basically the only Republican state National Review could take a fundraising cruise to

Riffing off that. It’s 2015 and John McCain’s still ticking, so maybe stop breathlessly giving him shit for presuming to put Sarah Palin in line for the presidency. (Admittedly, I wouldn’t put it past a President McCain to fly out to the sandbox for some “leading from the front” stunt and step on a landmine.)

Which, I don’t think she’d’ve been a good president. She’d certainly’ve been an interesting president. Some days I suspect Obama’s legacy will mirror the 19th century Whigs: “he did what he could to keep the civil war from starting on his watch”. I can’t see that as a Palin legacy.

I stand by my assessment of 2 years ago, she’s the platonic, um, dysideal of a politician - “all the bloviation, narcissism, and lack of expertise at anything beyond self-promotion that implies”. Also, from a party that likes to give Obama shit for using a teleprompter, she’s an honest-to-god news hairdo who left to her own devices tends to start one sentence and finish another.

But the thing is the Vice Presidency is more than just the Presidency-in-waiting, it’s also been shoehorned into filling the role that the monarch or President does in European parliamentary systems - a ceremonial embodiment of the nation. The Veep flies out to show the colors at state funerals, for example, leaving the President free to do things that actually matter.

And fucking try to tell me there’s a better embodiment of Republican-brand America than Sarah Palin. She would be the best since Agnew. The best.

Reagan ran as an embodiment, and governed as one too - hold a press appearance so charming that the media would write him a blank check, then send David Stockman over to Capitol Hill to cash it.

Candidate Obama ran as an embodiment - that was basically his ’08 platform, really. But President Obama hasn’t (couldn’t?). A really, really fascinating phenomenon was how the longing for an embodiment got displaced onto Joe Biden. Not actual Joe Biden, Delaware-based Amtrak enthusiast, but The Onion’s fictional Joe Biden, the beer-drinking, poontang-chasing Outlaw Democrat.

Because that’s an embodiment (kind of stealing Bill Clinton’s “Bubba” mojo tbh) that The Onion’s readership can love, because that’s one they can see themselves in - white working class, but, like, classic rock white working class, not country white working class. Which is kind of the Hulk Hogan flavor of Republican, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is the most Cascadian famous politician out there. We’re not that Christian, but those who are are pretty so, but in a backwoods outdoorsy way that’s friendly with hellbound neighbors and sanguine about them knocking up their daughters.

She’s also the most politiciany famous Cascadian, with all the bloviation, narcissism, and lack of expertise at anything beyond self-promotion that implies.

thought 1: haha, King of the Hill x Evangelion fanart

thought 2: oh man, that kind of looks like Sarah Palin in a plugsuit

thought 3: Sarah Palin in a plugsuit