SARAH PALIN WOULD FIT IN WELL IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, April 18^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

SARAH PALIN WOULD FIT IN WELL IN LOUISIANA!

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is back in the news, announcing that she will be a candidate for Alaska’s single congressional seat. Fifty candidates have signed up to run, but with Palin’s national statue, one would think that she would be the odds-on favorite.

I don’t know about you, but I actually read Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue that became a national best seller. Over a recent quiet weekend, I took in the unique insights of this controversial lady. 

Wanting to read all the juicy tidbits first, I immediately went to the index to get an idea of what Palin listed as being of particular importance.  But surprise!  There is no index in the book.  So no choice for me but to wade on through.  I did make a few page number notations so I could share with you. 

First, a stop on page 102 is a “must read” just for the lyrical prose.  Here’s a tid bit: “As the soles of my shoes hit the soft ground, I pushed past tall cottonwood trees in a euphoric cadence, and meandered through willow branches that the moose munched on.”  Hemingway would have been impressed.

And food?  She makes no bones about how she loves and cooks Alaskan edibles.  Her specialties include halibut tacos (p. 1), reindeer sausage (p. 1) and caribou lasagna (p. 218). How on the day she got married “we stopped by the Wendy’s drive-thru for our wedding dinner.” (p. 49).  Palin also makes it quite clear that “I love meat,” particularly “the seared fatty edges of a well-done steak.”  (p. 18).  She follows this homily with one of the book’s more deep and poignant quotes: “If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat? “(p. 133) Nuf said. 

She says that: “I love to write, but not about myself” (p. 409), although her book is almost entirely about herself. Hey, I’m not really knocking her for her effort, for she does have quite a story to tell.  After all, how many women have won a local beauty contest finishing runner-up in a state pageant, been a TV sports announcer, then gone on to be Mayor, governor, raising five children, be a vice presidential candidate of one of the two major parties, and helped in write her story that has become a huge bookstore hit?

So how would Sarah Palin fair in Louisiana?  Actually, quite well.  The deepest of the deep southern states shares much in common with Palin’s home state of Alaska.  Oil and gas production and seafood are major forces in driving the economy in both states. 

 Sure she’s a bit quirky, but how about Louisiana women politicos?  Former Governor Kathleen Blanco cried on national television, and former Senator Mary Landrieu has been accused of prostituting herself by none other than former Palin radio host Rush Limbaugh before his death. 

 

I remember back well in in 2008 when Palin brought her indomitable book tour road show to my hometown of Baton Rouge with the flair and the chutzpah of a larger than life personality, which she just might be.  Security was tight at the local Books-A-Million, and the crowd of over 1000 was given strict instructions of what it could, and could not do. I lived at the time just a short walk from Books-A-Million, so I decided to mosey on over to check out the Sarah phenomena.

 

Look, this was a real labor of love to stand there for hours and go though all these procedures just to get a book signed.  The process was similar to visiting a relative in prison, or maybe waiting to see Kim Kardashian.  But as much as I would have liked to visit with Sarah, the hoops you had to go through were just a little too much for me.  So with some reluctance, I walked back home.

Now, like I said, I live just a stone’s through away from the bookstore. So when I got home, I decided to climb up on my roof. It’s flat, with a full view of the shopping center where the bookstore is located.  And then it dawned on me.  We have a common bond, this lady and I. Remember back during the campaign when she was asked about her foreign policy experience.  She said she could see Russia from her house.  Well guess what!  I can see Sarah from my house!  Pretty cool, huh?  “You betcha.”

                                      *****

“Absolutely. Yup, yup.” –Sarah Palin after being asked by People magazine if she was ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency back in 2006.

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  Readers can also review books by Jim Brown and many others he has published by going to http://www.thelisburnpress.com.