Harrisburg's own Sarah Palin
With city mayoral candidate Linda D. Thompson announcing, with more than a little self-righteous arrogance, that she will no longer answer questions about the finances or "success stories" of her Loveship non-profit, a certain realization has set in.
She is our own Sarah Palin.
Think about it. Both came out of nowhere for a shot at the big time. Both saw their campaigns sputter after the press, and especially "pathetic bloggers", began picking apart at their records. For Thompson, the defining issue was Loveship, and whether it did much of anything except pay her rent money. For Palin, it was whether she, as governor of Alaska, tried to get her brother-in-law fired from the Alaska State Police for allegedly being bad to her sister. And general stupidity. I won't even get into the family issues that both women would find quite familiar.
Thompson is a religious fanatic, seeing herself as the prophet Nehemiah sent to rebuild Jerusalem. Palin is a religious fanatic, attending a fundamentalist church that warned her to beware of witches that would try to stop her from becoming vice president. Thompson served on Harrisburg City Council. Palin served on Wasilla City Council in Alaska. Both had their really goofball moments, Palin when she said words that became, "I can see Russia from my house," Thompson for her litigious fear of gasoline.
And both eventually refused to answer questions about the baggage from their past and present, insisting they only wanted to talk about the "real issues."
Palin lost the big election for John McCain as voters caught on that that there was nobody really home to run things if the Big Guy abruptly exited the picture. Thompson? We'll see on Nov. 3.
I hadn't realized until I wrote this that both Thompson and Palin used the phrase "pathetic bloggers" to deride the journalists parsing their records. Hmmm. Do you supposed Thompson admires Palin? Is that the real reason Charlie Gerow, the rightwing political consultant who helped smear John Kerry's war record in 2004, embraced Thompson? Is Thompson the ultimate stealth candidate? Intending to become a Republican when the time is right? Maybe that's why the Dauphin County Republicans have offered, at best, tepid support and almost zero dollars for Nevin Mindlin, the actual Republican candidate. Are they slavering at the thought of a black Republican woman running Harrisburg, the state capital?
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?