Sarah Palin, engaging entertainer
Sarah Palin answers questions at the Long Island Association luncheon in Woodbury on Thursday. Credit: AP
The world according to Sarah Palin is a very simple place. All the United States really needs to get back on track is common sense, lower taxes, smaller government and a little mother-style multitasking in the corridors of power.
Righting the struggling economy and setting a course for the nation in a complex, fast-moving world won't be that easy, of course. But her message is clearly a comfort for some at a time when the American dream is imperiled and it can feel like events around the globe are spinning out of control. And she delivered it well at a Long Island Association luncheon yesterday.
She was charming and clever as she wove her spell, citing a 1964 Reader's Digest article on the perils of deficit spending for instance, and telling tales of "snow-machining" through the Alaska woods in below-zero temperatures as a test of character for her visitors.
This was Sarah Palin, the celebrity and possible presidential candidate, intent on breaking the mold — down to her slingback, peeky-toe, cheetah-print shoes.
She hedged playfully when asked about running in 2012. But she offered few real answers for a nation she has described as lurching on the road to ruin, beyond the familiar "drill, baby, drill" and "repeal Obamacare."
If she does run, she'll have to deal with complexity. But for now, she's in Sarah Palin's world.
