What Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson Have In Common

All the people who are tired of Michael Jackson coverage should calm down. Once the memorial service is over he will slowly start to fade out of the news. I have to admit that I am surprised by how long Michael Jackson’s death has stayed on the front page. Friday I was watching Sarah Palin’s speech and I realized how much her resignation and Michael Jackson’s death have a common thread. I know that sounds crazy but stick with me.

If Michael Jackson would have been born twenty years later than he was things would have been a lot different. Most of his fans are locked into a memory of Mike prior to 1985. The country was different back then. He was the last person to gain fame before Americans were trained that they have to be negative about something in order to validate what they like. The man had a pop album named after a song about ghost and zombies that was so popular across all walks of life he was invited to The White House when Ronald Reagan was in office and no one thought this was strange. Could you imagine if someone released an album like Thriller in 2009? The critics would smash the idea. Religious groups would protest and Bill O’Reilly would have an entire week of shows on the topic. Not only that, a song like Beat It in 2009 would be incredibly corny and never get radio play. Michael Jackson wouldn’t have had a complex and thinking he had to make everyone love him because it would have been crystal clear that a large group of people hated him. Public figures that only have experience in the current climate of our society are well aware of that fact. If Mike hadn’t disconnected from everything he would have realized this too and relaxed a little.

I don’t predict we will be having anymore global phenomenon like Mike in my lifetime. I think he was the last one of his kind. The only area this could potentially happen is sports and we knock them down too. Don't expect anyone in leadership to maintain that kind of aura. We won’t be spending any money to update Mt. Rushmore because there isn’t a chance that enough people get behind one person of any party long enough to do great things. With all the issues affecting the country, there is still time to discuss who is running for president against our current president who hasn’t been in office for six months. Everything is designed with such focus on failing and negativity that it’s taking people out of the race before they have a chance to really do anything. Even if Barack Obama does everything right and we all prosper he wouldn’t get the right credit because people would dog him anyway. It would have to happen because our country is designed to take people down once they get too big. That brings me to Sarah Palin.

When I watched her speech Friday I couldn’t help thinking I was watching someone whose skin isn’t thick enough to take all the mental strain that comes with running for president nowadays. Running a successful campaign is 20% policy, 40% marketing, and 40 % destroying all the values and reputation of your opponent. That means that you and your opponent are spending almost half of your time and resources making the other person look bad. She has a son with special needs and a teenage daughter who has a child. Does she really want to be president bad enough to put them all out there in the crosshairs of all that negative drama?

Things can appear to be one way and turn into an entirely different animal once you get on the inside. You need to have everything in order personally like Barack Obama or so stubborn and convinced you are right like George Bush that you don’t give a damn. That’s how you make it to the finish line in the national spotlight. It takes a special breed to be president and I don’t know if she has it. I believe she was real gung-ho about the proposition until she got in the middle of it and seen everything that comes with it. I hope she gets out of the spotlight for awhile and doesn’t listen to her supporters who are trying to spin this as some maverick political move because of their hope she can save the party. I think she threw in the towel and that was the right move. It was only going to get worse.

I don’t know that woman’s family so you won’t find any personal attacks here. If I did that then I would feel like a hypocrite every time I leave a nasty comment on any article that gets personal about Michelle, Sasha and Malia Obama. I’ll stick to dogging her policies as soon as I figure out what they are. I never get a thrill out of watching anyone crash and burn unless it's an obvious jackass or someone who does something incredibly stupid like sending 10,000 text messages to your chief of staff or disappearing from your state to go to Argentina to get busy with your "soul mate". Those folks have well earned the below the belt comments made about them.