If anyone deserves status as political soothsayer, it’s Victor Davis Hanson. He predicted the surge, amonst other things, quite correctly.
For those labeling her a quitter, particularly Democrats:
It’s not like a Letterman can trump laughing at her on late-night television as he puns that a Yankees star had sex in a dugout with her 14-year old daughter. Can Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic website go beyond his slurs that she did not deliver her own child? How much more cleverly can N.Y. feminist pundits tsk-tsk her that she’s a Wasilla trailer-park retread?
Good point.
He also has words for those who wish to count her out:
In the long run, she can lecture, earn a good income through speaking, develop a coterie of advisers and supporters, take care of her family, not have the constant political warring on all flanks, and invest time in reflecting and studying issues, visit the country, meet leaders, etc. She’s not looking at 2012; but in eight years by 2016 she will be far more savvy, still young, and far more experienced. It matters not all that the Left writes her off as daffy, since they were going to do that whatever she did; the key is whether she convinces conservatives in eight year(s) of travel and reflection that she’s a charismatic Margaret Thatcher type heavyweight.
VDH, the wise sage of America, listen, learn and let it sink in…….he is correct here.
He is giving me some optimism. But let´s be real: Not finishing her first term as governor has added to the hurdles she has to overcome. Her chances to hold another elected office are much diminished now. I may not like the “quitter” argument because I respect her reasons, but in political and marketing terms it is unanswerable. She did in fact quit.
I prefer to call it a “fallback & regroup.” Typical battle plan!