Fall of Palin

After Rambling Speech, Even the GOP Admits the ‘Fall of Palin’

John Paul Brammer

I consider myself a connoisseur of bad Republican speeches. Bobby Jindal’s awkward State of the Union response? Exquisite. Clint Eastwood yelling at a chair? I revisit it frequently.

But of all the terrible speechmakers the GOP has in its considerable chorus of fools, there are none so reliable, so dependably crazy as Sarah Palin.

And this weekend at Rep. Steve King’s Cantaloupe Conference, the artist delivered yet another masterpiece – a strange, rambling, tragic speech that almost nobody, even in a room full of right-wingers, found acceptable.

God. It’s an instant classic.

Now, to my ears, this is nothing new from Palin. She’s been saying stuff like this for as long as she’s been in the spotlight.

But this speech was so bad, so downright confusing that it made the GOP finally realize that perhaps the fall of Sarah Palin is upon us.

Washington Examiner columnist Byron York, formerly one of Palin’s strongest supporters, spoke with conservative activists and they had nothing good to say about Palin’s speech.

One of the attendees he spoke with, a person he describes as a “well-connected Iowa Republican,” was especially harsh, saying:

“Calling Gov. Palin’s remarks bizarre and disjointed would be charitable. Her shelf-life, even with the most conservative voters in our party, seems to be near the end. In a day filled with strong performances from likely candidates ranging from Scott Walker to Ted Cruz, her remarks were a distraction.”

On the Iowa Republican blog, Craig Robinson wrote about how difficult it was to find a positive reaction to Palin’s speech:

“Of all the people I talked to about Palin’s speech, only one person didn’t have a negative reaction. That person basically said it was a typical Sarah Palin speech. It was received poorly by everyone else I spoke with. I’m not comfortable sharing everything I heard about the speech — it was that bad.”

Could it be? Are the days of Palin’s relevancy in the GOP numbered? On the one hand, I think that if the GOP had a problem with people saying things that don’t make any sense, then there wouldn’t be a Republican Party.

But on the other, at this point, Palin is a self-parody – an easy target that drives moderates away from a party that will not tolerate the likes of her in their ranks.

Wait a minute. Maybe we should keep her around.