ONLY IN AMERICA...

Sarah Palin, vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the presidency, has indicated she very seriously considering seeking the Republican nomination for 2012.

In an interview with the New York Times she said that she was discussing the matter with her family and “engaging in the internal deliberations candidly”, whatever that might mean.

However, already she is whining about the fact that what she calls (perhaps in a joke, perhaps because she doesn’t know the correct term, you can never tell with her) the "lamestream media" for concentrating on her personal life. Other candidates haven’t had that she reckons.

I’ve never understood why John McCain, an otherwise reasonably sensible man, chose Palin who was the unknown governor of Alaska and former mayor of Wasilla (population 10,256) to be his running mate. She seemed to me to damage his campaign more every time she opened her silly mouth.

She demonstrated an incredible lack of political knowledge, of geography, and of even the names of newspapers and periodicals, never mind their content. She was lampooned by every non rightwing publication and tv channel, and at times made the Republican campaign look like a monstrous joke.

She has, nonetheless, boosted her popularity by becoming a leading light in the right wing Tea Party movement and, as something of a celebrity (in many eyes for all the wrong reasons) has had a measured success endorsing dozens of successful Republican candidates in the recent mid-term elections.

Palin is recruiting extra staff for her office. (Having become something of a personality, and made a pot of money from after dinner speaking, she has a staff.) This is taken as a sign that a bid for the nomination is on the cards. She will have to make her intentions clear by early next year.

If she decides to run, she is likely to face competition from people like Mitt Romney, ex-governor of Massachusetts, Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota, and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House.

From a Scottish, UK or European point of view, it seems incredible that a person of her intellect could even possibly become the President of the United States of America. She makes Hazel Blears look halfway reasonable. But then you look at Ronald Regan, Bush the elder, and most especially George W Bush, and you think... yep it is possible.

As ‘Letter from America’ Danny often says to me... ‘Only in America’.