How huge are the negatives?

'From Holly Merrigan on September 24, 2009 at 10:07 am. IP Logged, 70.104.12.x Report Abuse

I love Sara Palin and all she stands for but, unfortunately, I think she is unelectable. There are too many people who despise her...we need someone who starts out with no huge negatives. And I agree that adult supervision is a good thing. I like Petraeus. He has actually successfully run something.'

http://poll.pollcode.com/C6TQ_result?v

There will be endless discussions in the next three years about this exact subject. For the record, here are my thoughts.

The 'huge negatives' with Sarah Palin substantively are? She's a woman? You really wanna go down that road? She has a sense of humour? She didn't go to an Ivy League circle jerk? She hunts? She has a big happy family? She doesn't pander to the right-on holy cows? She was the object of probably the most vile hatefest in the history of Democrat politics (admittedly there are many rivals for that)?

Objectively, most of those are positives or neutrals for your average American. The last one- well what does that have to do with Sarah Palin? Nothing. Three years is a long time in pretty much any business. The crazed accusations that the Democrats spat at Ms Palin will have lost all their ability to influence by 2010, let alone 2012. Ms Palin has three plus years to introduce herself, the real person, to the American people.

If Ms Palin has real negatives, they are a lack of depth of understanding of some of Americas most pressing issues. But now she isn't running a state, she has lots of time for reading up and talking to the pertinent knowledgeable people. What she has in spades is guts, charisma and steely resolve. I would have given my left testicle to have seen her at the UN shindig yesterday rather than President of the World Obama. I can just imagine her taking on the motley rabble of dictators, psychopaths and lunatics with devastating grace; a twenty first century Margaret Thatcher.

Obviously, the road to the White House is long and tortuous and pretty much anything could happen in the interim, but I think Sarah Palin has a real shot. I'll drink a toast to her success!