Palin Rises as Grand Old Party's Grand Leader

Think what you will of Sarah Palin’s fireworks, you have to credit her with chasing Jacko and Baracko off the Fourth of July front pages.

For good measure, throw in with Michael Jackson and Barack Obama the heads of state in Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

Moreover, it has been a real hoot for just plain folks outside the mass media’s tightly self-spun cocoon of invincible ignorance to observe the political insiders tripping all over each other trying to figure it out. They just don’t get Sarah.

Wise ones in the press are in a lather over having been ignored — something the general, unwashed populace has been itching to do to them.

Sarah’s original sin was that she did not seek their wisdom before declaring she was resigning as Alaska’s governor. Heck, she didn't even give them a heads up.

Caught unaware — just as they were about to lapse into full Independence Day indolence and indulgence — they fumbled the call to be brilliant with the near-unanimous knee-jerk response of declaring her politically stupid or deliberately suicidal.

Doing what she did is something you simply do not do. It’s not the conventional, politically wise way. Far worse! It’s not how they’d do it. Why, it’s . . . it’s . . . well, it simply hasn’t been done that way before. Ever.

Sarah was supposed to have minded the governor’s shop in Juneau until her term was up tidily at the end of 2010. That’s where the mass media had stuck her, until they were ready to decide what to do with her next, if anything. Ever.

Elected officials must not leave office prematurely, unless because of some scandal the press serves up. Forget that it was all right for Hillary Clinton to leave her senate seat to be Obama’s secretary of state. Forget that it was all right for Obama to leave the senate to become president of the known world. This Palin woman has to be out of (masscomm) control.

What’s she going to do for the next 18 months, until it’s time to send a press-selected Republican to be chewed up by the press-adulated Obama en route to his second term? Why, she’ll disappear off the political radar screen, as if that’s something the press doesn’t want to happen.

This must have been some kind of Inuit version of political suicide to escape the world of press assaults on her character, as if masscomm was not responsible for those.

Well then, she “buckled under all that pressure.” If the pressure wasn’t intolerable, then the press would have had to admit it wasn’t doing its job.

It’s rather obvious who needs a serious head examination. Not Sarah Palin.

If the press thinks she cringes when the going gets tough, or is a quitter, or doesn’t know how to beat them at their own game, or is incapable of spending the next 18 months more productively than any other GOP presidential prospect in sight, then the press needs some time in a remedial-English class.

Sarah has handed the clueless a clue: She’s going to spend the next year or so helping elect honest-to-God conservatives to Congress and to governorships. She is, and will be even more, the hottest property on the conservative circuit.

After the 2010 congressional elections, and going into the 2012 presidential primaries, she will have in her hands more chits than any other Republican. In the process, she will have ample time to do the brush-up homework on issues the press demands of her but not of others.

It was impossible watching her televised announcement Friday not to be struck by the comparison with Obama facing his indispensable teleprompters. She spoke from the heart, with no script or technical gadgetry. Contrary to critiques from the press gallery, it was a masterfully organized, beautifully delivered political address. It was pure Sarah, and what a refreshing delight that was.

What GOP hopeful would not now change places with her in a heartbeat? This grand lady has rescued the Grand Old Party from itself. It now has its leader.

John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for Newsmax.com. Read John Perry's columns here.