Most of us know by now that Sarah Palin has as much chance of becoming president as Jesse Jackson has of joining the KKK. She has a tremendous following, but only a tiny amount of political credibility, making her a cross between Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and a kid who keeps failing ninth grade. In fact, rather than simply http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/11/exclusive-palin-emails-abc-news-to-push-back-on-taliban-muslim-twitter-controversy.html”>emulating Coulter, Palin is applauding her at her very worst moments, which is a very bad move for even the strongest conservative.
Recently, Palin put one of the final nails in her presidential coffin by “favoriting” a tweet by Ann Coulter. In the tweet, Coulter mentioned that she was excited about a sign outside a church that said:
“The blood of Jesus against Obama history made 4 Nov 2008 a Taliban Muslim illegally elected president USA: Hussein.”
Coulter responded to the tweet by joking to say that this was going to be her new church. In the midst of numerous supporters of her problematic remarks, Sarah Palin chose Coulter’s comment as one of her favorites. This is what got her into trouble, yet again.
Of course Palin tried to back peddle and argue that she accidentally chose to favorite Coulter’s tweet. In the case of Palin, almost any mistake is possible, as we must remember that she’s the same woman who didn’t know that Africa was a continent. But the idea that she can’t even control the technology on her Blackberry tells us loud and clear that she is not the person who should have access to nuclear warheads. Foreign relations and domestic policy are far more complicated than Sarah Palin’s Blackberry, and I’d hate for her to make more of her snafus in the Oval Office.
Palin’s latest silly remark is not the only time she’s done something of significant racial controversy. A few months ago, Palin went out of her way to defend the n-word tirade by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. After the entire country took Dr. Laura to task for her extensive use of the n-word on the air, Palin had this to say on Twitter:
Dr.Laura:don’t retreat…reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence ‘isn’t American,not fair’)” Then she added, “Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!
The consistent theme is that, like many goofy professional athletes, Twitter gets Sarah Palin into trouble. Exhibit B in the “why Sarah Palin is not fit for the presidency” presentation is her extensive use of Twitter to spout opinions off the cuff. A woman who is equipped to lead the most powerful nation in the world has no business making bumbling, grammatically embarrassing remarks on her Twitter account as if she were the rapper Slim Thug or actress Lindsay Lohan. A true presidential candidate would be more careful than that.
Sarah Palin may not be racist, but she is certainly acting a lot like one. Palin’s political existence is a manifestation of the extensive racial disharmony which continues to plague our great nation. She claims to be fighting for liberty, but doesn’t quite understand what liberty really means. For Palin, liberty means having the right to banish someone from the presidency because you think he’s a Muslim. It also means, to Palin, that white people should have the right to continue to call black people the n-word. The pursuit of liberty for one human being should not include the right to steal liberty from another. In other words, Palin should not be fighting for the rights of bigoted people to continue to hate racial minorities, for that’s not freedom at all.
In some ways, I’d like to say that Sarah Palin reminds me of George W. Bush. That statement, however, would be an insult to the former president. One of the most interesting pieces of evidence to show that George W. Bush is making a smooth transition to elder, respected statesman was his recent appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. A clip of the show (to be aired this week) shows Bush saying that he is not going to go out of his way to critique President Obama’s performance. He said that Obama has enough critics, and he’s not going to add to the pile.
Palin never has, nor ever will have, the political maturity that Bush displayed with his comment. Perhaps Palin could learn a few things from Bush and realize that in order to be treated in a presidential fashion, you must behave in one. In that regard, Palin is failing nearly every single test.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the initiator of the National Conversation on Race. For more information, please visit BoyceWatkins.com>