I was watching Hillary blathering on today about she'd like to sit down with Palin (whom she's never personally met) for coffee. Couple that with the generally complimentary things that Palin has always had to say about Clinton. How could such a marriage of strange bedfellows every possibly happen, you ask? Well, first of all, it probably never would. But say Hillary saw an opportunity in 2012 to take on a low popularity Obama, running on a theme of being an alternative to the unpopular and radical "progressive" far left strain that has basically taken over the dem party. Not that I think Hillary has too huge of a problem with the "progressives," but make no mistake that she is not one of them (NOR is she what one would describe as a "moderate"), and she is a consummate politician, and I could conceivably see her going Independent against the radical far left IF conditions completely aligned for such an event. And I'm telling you folks, a lot of strange political winds are blowing throughout the country, unseen at any point in my life, so I would never say that Hillary going Independent is an impossibility (although I acknowledge that it's an improbability). To reiterate, Hillary is no progressive, but she's no centrist either -- she's basically a garden variety liberal, although those folks scare me much, much less than the "progressives".
So how does Palin fit into this equation? Different dynamic there entirely. Palin would never become an "alternative" to the repubs' far right conservative base because that's what she is, a far right conservative. BUT I could see her running as an Independent against the republican party given that there is a huge old-money-style as well as elitist component to the far right that really dislikes Palin because she wasn't educated in the Ivy League, and she dares to be a former mayor of a town of 9,000 (the radical "progressives" hate that about her too, by the way). I could conceivably see her finally getting so fed up with the traditional repub powerbrokers that she would turn and run as an Independent.
So, then, how would Hillary and Sarah, two 1000-miles apart politicians, ever possibly link up? Only one possible way: Both of their insatiable desires to WIN higher elected office, that's how. About 40% of this country is now Independent, and if you give those folks (my people) the option of such a completely unprecedented ticket as that which Hillary-Sarah would offer, you would probably get most of their votes plus a ton of non-liberal dems and non-conservative repubs at the same time. In other words, an Independent ticket could actually win the presidency. An obvious conundrum: Who would be at the top of the ticket? Well, they would have to hash that out, but frankly I'd assume Hillary since she was ever so close to winning the dem nomination last year over Obama, but came up just short. In contrast, Palin has obviously never run for pres before.
So am I really advocating such a ticket? I'm not so sure. It was more just a very strange thought that occurred to me tonight. In this strange political climate, nothing would surprise me, and I bet we will be seeing all kinds of weird things like this in the months and years to come. But as for me: Hillary has always been too far left for me to consider voting for, and Palin likewise too far right. But the two of them together on one ticket? Seems intriguing, fascinating, and at least something that I would consider.
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