Perceptions by
Gerry Warner
Oh my God! What’s
happening now? I don’t know how to break this to you, but the buzz in the
Beltway is that if there’s no clear winner in the Republican primary race by
June it may lead to a “brokered convention.”
What’s that you
say? (pregnant pause.) I really don’t
know how to break it to you gently so I
guess I’ll just have to plunge right in and say it outright – SARAH PALIN!!!
I’m not kidding.
At this point, it’s only being talked about in dark corners, but this nightmare
scenario may actually materialize if neither Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum can
break away from the pack and gather the magic 1,144 votes they will need at the
Republican convention in Tampa to take the Grand Old Party’s (GOP’s)
nomination.
If that doesn’t
put you off your Wheaties I don’t know what will. I mean wasn’t Palin finished?
Kaput? Dead, at least politically?
Apparently not. And the Alaska Barracuda
may come back for Act 2 and no writer less than Shakespeare or Hunter S.
Thompson could do justice to that. Fear and loathing, indeed. Mind you Steven
Harper might welcome the advent of Palin. He’s always been a big fan of the
American military, George W. Bush and the like. As for the rest of the world, we
all better take a Valium and pray.
After “Super
Tuesday” this week, Romney had 458 committed delegates to Santorum’s 203
and Gingrich’s 118 which puts the former
Massachusetts governor well in the lead, but barely a third of the way to winner
take all status, which is not a strong
position considering how much time is left between now and June.
Even the devout
Santorum, though well back of Romney, could conceivably win because he’s winning
states in the South that nobody thought he’d win and he claims to have a
personal pipeline to the Creator. One celestial
call to God up in heaven and it
would be all over for Romney and the second American Catholic president would be
ready to move into the Oval Office, or so Santorum would have us
believe.
But what if the
all-powerful Creator in all his/her/its majesty declines Santorum’s prayer? What
indeed? It’s at this point we have to go from the sublime to the ridiculous and
consider the rifle-toting, moose-gutting, Queen of the North Slope and potential
first female president of the Excited States of America.
It fairly
boggles the mind! In fact when recently
asked by Fox TV what she would do if there’s a deadlocked GOP convention, Palin
replied: “I would do anything I could do to help.” That’s big of her. “Help”
from Sarah Palin is about the last thing the U.S. or the world needs now. Yet
it’s happened before.
In the 1924
Democratic convention, it took 102 ballots before John W. Davis (who?) became
the Dem’s candidate with the party totally split between “wets and drys”
(drinkers and prohibitionists). One of the greatest American presidents of all
time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, won in a brokered convention in 1932. And as
recently as 1976 the Republicans did not have a clear winner going into their
convention and it had to go to one ballot for Gerald Ford, the president that
pardoned Nixon, to edge out Ronald Regan. So could it happen again this
time?
Fox News TV
commentator Joel Smith calls Palin “a dream candidate.” But in another Fox News interview,
Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter said of
her “I don’t know what people are cheering for,”
and Washington Post reporter Rachel Weiner says Palin is too much of a polarizing figure.
“Her
clout is dubious. Her popularity peaked long ago, and the supporters she does
have won't
necessarily follow her lead.”
But in a country where over half the population doesn’t have a passport,
two-thirds are “born again” and close to half don’t believe their president is
an American – anything goes. It’s also a deeply patriotic country and who better
than a Tea Party darling to be the next president.
What about Oprah Winfrey? Someone should ask her. She’d make a hell of a better president than
Romney, Santorum, or God forbid, Newt Gingrich.
What's the fascination with US politics, Gerry? Sorry, I almost forgot ... they're our closest neighbour (I hope you notice I'm not using American spelling, because I'm proud to be Canadian).
ReplyDeleteWhat about writing about the federal NDP leadership contest? Or how about commenting on our premier's first year? No comments about Mr. Bennett? How have you enjoyed your first few months in municipal politics?
Surely you can find something more interesting to write about for your readers????