by Sebastian Ramshackle III

Created on: November 08, 2008   Last Updated: May 28, 2012

Did Sarah Palin get a second chance at the presidency? Of course not. Why? Read on.

Despite the glowing words spoken about Sarah Palin by John McCain and others within the Republican Party in 2008 ('she is one of the best campaigners I have ever seen'), she is fading back into the obscurity from whence she came and within a relatively short space of time Sarah Palin will be a footnote in the history books in the same way as Geraldine Ferraro has become. (Remember Ms Ferraro? Thought not. She was Walter Mondale's running mate in the 1984 presidential election.)

So why is it unilkely that Sarah Palin will be the Republican choice for presidential candidate at some point in the future? Essentially it is because the Grand Old Party (GOP) needs to find a candidate that can appeal to the ecentre as well as the extreme of US politics and Palin appeals only to the extreme, that is, the wing of the party that lost, and lost badly, the 2008 election. Consider Sarah Palin's history as a candidate for vice-president.

When Palin was asked to run on Senator McCain's ticket, her family's conversation turned to McCain's age and the likelihood of his surviving two terms should he win, and whether Palin could take the route taken by many Vice-Presidents and run as the party's candidate in 2016. Its not good to start thinking about your candidate's chance of surviving a term should he win.

Once the 2008 election was upon them at the beginning of November and it was clear that the Republican grip on the White House was almost certain to be over, Republican thoughts turned, not to 2016, but to 2012, when Obama would be up for re-election. Palin's supporters in the top echelons of the Grand Old Party began to brief secretly against McCain's relatively liberal message and his organisation in the hope of promoting their candidate for the next presidential election.

Once the 2008 election held on November 4th was over, Sarah Palin had the momentum, the Big Mo beloved of political strategists, but, as Hilary Clinton can testify, the Big Mo doesn't really last for that long. Why? Because things change out there in the environment,  and the longer time goes on, the more candidates get the chance to make a public gaff.

On the issue of public gaffs, Sarah Palin thought that Africa is a country, showing a very limited understanding of international relations and geography and was confused over her main opponent's family's place of origin. If she can get those simple facts wrong, imagine what she can get wrong during four years of public scrutiny, interviews, accidentally switched-on microphones and off-the-cuff comments.

This doesn't really worry the conservatives in the Republican Party and Sarah Palin has been promoted by many of them as the natural next presidential candidate. Conservatives blamed defeat on John McCain's liberal message and his inability to get the grassroots of the party enthused and campaigning locally. However, the conservative hold on the party and the nation appears to be waning and a more middle of the road candidate has appeared in the form of Mitt Romney.

Palin's initial groundswell of support following the 2008 presidential election has dissipated as she has given both satirists and serious political commentators more opportunities to pick holes in her knowledge and capabilities. Palin's flame flickered again in 2012 but gradually faded as she slid into history as a mere footnote to Obama's historic victory. Conservative Republicans will no doubt shortly anoint another keeper of their version of the truth.

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