COMMENTARY | It appears that it isn’t just the liberal-controlled “gotcha” media that Sarah Palin has to worry about these days. As was revealed by Mediaite, former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on Laura Ingraham’s radio talk show Friday to promote his new book and had a few words to say about the job of the vice presidency. And when the discussion turned to 2008 vice presidential candidate and potential 2012 presidential candidate Palin, Cheney seemed to dismiss the question of her qualifications for his old job, focusing instead on how she handled her own job as governor of Alaska by resigning. But was questioning Palin’s motives for resignation all the answer that was necessary?
Just after noting that the vice presidency was a position requiring “thick skin,” Cheney told Ingraham, ” Well, I’ve never gotten around the question of her having left the governorship of Alaska midterm. I’ve never heard that adequately explained so that I could understand why, how she decided in her first term to step down and still be — I’d like to know more about that.”
The former vice president, of course, was referring to Palin’s sudden announcement in 2009, after having completed just two-and-a-half years of a four-year gubernatorial stint, that she was resigning as governor of Alaska . Questions of whether or not she was going to run for reelection were quickly replaced by speculation as to her national political aspirations and condemnation from all political angles for the abrupt resignation. Charged as a “quitter” and a fame-seeker (the governor, due to her gained popularity as a vice presidential candidate, had fielded numerous offers for books, television shows, interviews, and speaking engagements — most of which she legally could not entertain because of her position as governor) by more than a few, Palin has never presented more than vague utterances that she could effect more change outside the governor’s office than in it.
But Cheney’s words dig at a sore spot in the Palin resume. Taken in juxtaposition with the previous comment about the need of “thick skin,” it would appear that there is a suggestion that Palin’s constant complaints regarding her treatment by the media (some of which are well-founded) and her stepping away from her elected obligation are not the acts of someone with vice presidential qualities. By extension, they are also not qualities that would indicate good presidential material.
Cheney’s words also seem to corroborate the thinking of another man who once worked in the George W. Bush administration, Karl Rove. The former deputy chief of staff and political advisor recently noted that Palin’s “thin-skinned” inability to allow speculation as to whether or not she would run for president might be indicative of someone unable to handle the pressures associated with a major campaign.
Still, former governor Palin could always fall back on her second most-favored mantra — that of being the “outsider,” the “anti–establishment” type of Republican, which is what she labeled Rove. Cheney will undoubtedly receive same. But none of the back-and-forth between the “outsider” and the “establishment” answers the pertinent questions of whether or not Sarah Palin will run for the 2012 Republican nomination for president or whether or not she is made of good presidential stock. And it appears that, if GOP power players like Dick Cheney and Karl Rove have their way, America will never find out.