Yep, I don’t mind agreeing to disagree.
There is more than one approach to public service and elected office.
I personally believe, for example, that there are more than enough think tanks and accountability outfits, so creating another one as a cover for becoming serious about policy would be a silly effort. So that’s why I don’t think Palin decided to transform herself into another “serious political pundit.” You might say, for example, that Newt Gingrich has gone that route with his organizations.
I have, however, come to believe that Breitbart was absolutely right when he said that politics is downstream of culture. For example, see:
1. Commander in Chief TV show in 2007/08 with Geena Davis as the president at time when Hollywood and DC and the nation assumed that Hillary would be the next president. So Hollywood did its Democrat duty and set the cultural stage for a woman president,
2. Madame Secretary TV show in 2014 with Tea Leoni as the Secretary of State coming in and clashing with the male president and being Ms. Heroic Leader because Hollywood and DC and the nation assume that Hillary Clinton will be the next president. So Hollywood is again doing its Democrat duty to set the cultural stage that Tea’s/Hillary’s time as Secretary of State makes her a great candidate for president.
Palin has chosen to use every avenue of social and new media, Facebook, twitter, reality TV, and now Tapp TV, to engage in both practical, every day issues and international and national issues.
I don’t know if she will run for national office.
But just because she hasn’t followed the staid, predictable, “legitimate,” consultant-guided path does not disqualify her.
Time will tell.
Good people can certainly disagree.
I just hope they disagree with all the facts on the table.
Oh, I agree as far as Breitbart’s statement and your examples. And I don’t think starting a new think tank would have been effective for her.
But as an antidote to the particular smear that the Dems, GOPe, and MSM got over on her, I think taking some sort of position with a reputable think tank would have been effective, whereas reality TV for her and her family has just reinforced the worst of the smear. (I also think time expressing herself in that sort of environment would have been helpful.)