Opinion: Is Sarah Palin no longer relevant?

By Matthew Gomez
Staff Writer

Sarah Palin’s new memoir “Going Rogue: An American Life” is a best-seller. In its first week available, Palin’s book even outsold President Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope.”

Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate under John McCain, resigned from her position as governor of Alaska back in July. She conveniently did this a month after signing her book deal, a move that left her with no political power.

When she was first announced as the vice-presidential candidate, Palin was relatively unknown outside Alaska, but she quickly made a spotlight for herself. And its bulb still hasn’t burned out.

When McCain first introduced her, Palin said she was just another “hockey mom” who never planned to get involved in public affairs. After coaching a basketball team, she became involved with the PTA, was elected to the city council, was elected mayor of Wasilla, Alaska and eventually became governor of the state.

In a Time Magazine interview back in August, Palin said in her childhood family dinner-table conversations revolved around current events, government and the nation as a whole. From that point on she had “an interest in how our government, how things worked.”

Once she stepped down as governor that should have been the end of Palin in the media, but she only did so to have her book ghost-written by Lynn Vincent and to clear up her schedule so she could go on tour. She abandoned the Americans she claimed to care about, so she could promote herself as someone who cares about those same Americans.

Palin said of Sean Parnell, the new governor, he will have “the same agenda as mine, minus the distractions.”

Palin ranks high up there with celebrities whose 15 minutes have long passed. When Katie Couric asked Palin what newspapers and magazines she read, she couldn’t answer and dodged the question three times. “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years,” she said.

Sean Hannity of Fox News asked Palin how she would answer those questions differently if given the chance.

“I did a horrible job with that, and let my annoyance just show so brightly,” Palin said. She finally said she reads Newsmax, The Frontiersman and The Wall Street Journal, then felt she needed to add everything online. “I absorb the news via many, many sources,” she said.

I understand the liberal media has an aggressive agenda set out to destroy everything right with America, but what annoyance can come from being asked such a simple question?

Which is why I pose another: Why does Sarah Palin still matter?