I don't pay much attention to talk radio these days, at least not as much as I used to. I used to listen often because I thought that it helped me to understand all sides of an issue. But after years of hearing what these right wing radio jocks had to say about things, they started to become too predictable. When it got to the point that I could predict their position on every issue before they talked about it, there wasn't much reason to keep listening. I suppose the left does the same thing, they're just harder to find on the radio.

I do tune in from time to time just to see what the currant gripe is. One thing I still find with these folks is that they all complain about the same issues at the same time and they all do it using the exact same talking points and attack strategies. This is why I have always thought that they get their talking points from some central right wing authority. They have always claimed that this isn't true. I don't know, but it sure does appear that way.

The last few months when I tune in to Rush, Shaun, or Lars, besides the same predictable Obama and health care bashing, I keep hearing this idea that liberals are afraid of Sarah Palin. Both sides of the political isle have always attempted to define the motivations and fears of the other side. Sometimes they get it right and often they are way off base. Example....When the right wing kept pounding into our psyche that those who did not support George Bushes war against Iraq wanted America to loose the war and that they were not patriotic. They could not have been more wrong. On the other hand, when they speak of liberal politicians tendencies towards raising taxes or the fact that political correctness has gotten so ridiculous that it threatens to change history as well as keeping certain facts about issues muted, they make a good point.

All that being said, on this idea that liberals are afraid of Sarah Palin, I believe they are once again, dead wrong. I don't claim to speak for other liberals but I think what most of them would say about Sarah Palin is this....It's not Sarah Palin we are afraid of. It's the ability of the right wing to form a blind allegiance towards a bad idea. They have time and time again demonstrated their ability to stubbornly latch onto bad ideas when they are sold to them with the right amount of fervor and emotion. Sure they get some things right, but when they get something wrong, their stubbornness will not allow them to admit it, even when history proves them wrong. George W Bush, Richard Nixon, the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, lowering taxes to the rich to stimulate the economy (actually, this might work sometimes but it always leads to higher deficets and deeper debt which in the long run hurt the economy more than it helps. How about cutting taxes and cutting spending. Now there's an idea!), and corporate deregulation, just to name a few.

So when we on the left see so many on the right getting all worked up over an idea like Sarah Palin as our president, we get a little nervous because it is not the person but rather the image that is in the process of being sold to the right wing followers, and they are falling for it lock, stock, and barrel. Sarah Palin is not an idiot like I may have joked about in my last blog. In fact, I would say that Sarah Palin is quite average. I'm not saying that I would have done any better in interviews I have seen with her, but I can acknowledge that I am quite average would never claim to make a great leader. Didn't conservatives learn their lesson the last time they got a person of average intelligence to run our country?

Does a high intellect make for a great leader? No it does not, but it should be a basic requirement. I guess a bad jumper could be a good quarterback or a good basketball player, but that would be rare. All of this being said, I have to admit that I do not know the mind, the motivation, or the intellect of Sarah Palin. What I do know is that she has not said or done a thing to demonstrate that she would be good presidential material. She is a gifted speaker, she knows how to relate to common folks. I can understand how the right sees her as a breadth of fresh air. She says all of the right things, she knows how to push the "I'm fed up with politics as usual" buttons. She comes off much better than the older stiff white male politicians who are all beginning to look like used car salesmen. Hell, isn't that how Obama got elected?

Sarah Palin definitely has a place in the republican party. She can motivate and she can rally. Since so many of her followers trust her, she would be of great value in keeping republican leaders and candidates honest, kind of how Howard Dean does on the left. But presidential material? Hardly. She has time, maybe she will prove me wrong. I just hope that if she is to be the next republican candidate for president, it will be because she proved herself worthy and not because her image was sold to her party, an image based on a lie.