Sarah Palin is still talking about Bill Ayres and desperately trying to retain attention and remain relevant. To a great degree, decrying women as ambitious is often a cloak for sexism, as ambitious men are not derided for this quality while the implication is that women just ought to know their place.
But Palin takes this to a new level. She is so desperate for power that it's pathetic. She can't hide it. Hillary Clinton seems positively modest by comparison. And unlike a female politician like, say, Kay Hagan who is ambitious and feisty, Palin simply lacks the intellect and personality to be anything other than a joke candidate. Clinging to the limelight is likely only to deepen these perceptions.
But I don't think that dragging things out with interviews is going to get Palin to where she wants to be. I think she ought to run for RNC Chair. I find it easy to believe that the idea of being party head would be appealing to her, and how many movement conservative types have been saying that she's the future of the party? Well, the future is now, bitches! Palin would be able to mobilize a huge grassroots army to support her, and although it's not a popularly elected position I would imagine that the RNC members would be sensitive to the outpouring. Now, I'm sure that many Republicans are doing a ketman sort of thing with respect to Palin, and that most are willing to outwardly praise her to the heavens while privately not wanting her within a mile of real power. These folks would have to put up or shut up. My guess is that she wouldn't win the chairmanship, and that while professional conservatives are perfectly willing to have the country led by an incompetent that mouths conservative platitudes but not their own party. I can hear it now, "Ooh, budgets are fun, gosh darn it! What does all this red ink mean?"
For Palin, though, it would be a win-win. If she wins, she wins, and she's the de jure party leader, which means she becomes a big national presence for four years and has the inside track at the 2012 nomination. If she loses, she can inveigh against the "old boys' club" of the party apparatus and take Mike Steele's legs out from under him before his first day on the job. Heck, she could probably form a shadow party apparatus on the internet, sorta like Barack Obama did. Plus, it would get her at least a few months' more news coverage and the timing feels right. Howard Dean managed to take hold of the DNC after losing in 2004 in the primaries. Palin was actually the nominee, and has been proclaimed by many of the right's leading lights as the future of conservatism and just about the only good thing that John McCain did. I think, with all the delusion going around, the right is due a moment of truth. I don't think Palin will do it, but who knows?
