A Royal Pa(l)in,

 

Donald Trump, aka the Donald, had his turn at playing politics. “Will he, or won’t he?” was the question on every lip, or at least the lips of the politicos, and no one, it seemed, knew the answer, or would own up to having the answer, at any rate.

What the Donald was doing was what he does best, he was getting his name mentioned prominently by the news media, and the question that wanted answering was “Will the Donald run for President?” My, how well that worked for the Donald and for the news media. By feigning ignorance, the talking heads could get an audience each night as they discussed the pros and cons of a possible Trump presidency.

Well, not every talking head was out for a bigger audience by pretending he didn’t know which way the Donald would go. Lawrence O’Donnell, of MSNBC’s The Last Word flat out predicted that his fellow employee (they both work for NBC) would never run for President. One reason he gave was the Donald could not stay with his show “The Celebrity Apprentice” if he was a presidential candidate, and O’Donnell was sure that the Donald had already committed to another season when all the talk was about a possible run at the White House.

Turns out, of course, that O’Donnell was right about the Donald, but just when you thought it was safe to return to the land of the talking heads, we have, lo and behold, another well-known celebrity politician who is toying with a run for the Presidency. That would be Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate from 2008 and TLC reality star; the one person who, it can be argued, is as much responsible for the Obama presidency as anyone.

Yes, once again, the question of the day is on the lips of every politico, “Will she, or won’t she?” And again, no one seems to know, or to be able to anticipate the answer. Well, except for our hero, Lawrence O’Donnell, who has dubbed Palin “the new Trump”. And far from being sympathetic with his fellow talking heads, O’Donnell has expressed amazement that the political press has “learned absolutely nothing" from having recently been Trumped by the Donald.

So why doesn’t O’Donnell think that Sarah is serious about making a dash towards 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Put simply, O’Donnell thinks Sarah, too, is more interested in staying in the national spotlight than any serious attempt at the White House.

And what has staying in the national spotlight done for Sarah? Well, let’s just say that she’s now making more (one estimate is $12 million a year) than she did as Governor of Alaska. You remember, the job she left because that kitchen was simply too hot? Yes, her political opponents were simply insatiable when it came to coming after her. So Sarah threw in the towel, because being Governor of a state whose total population was estimate to be some 700,000 in 2009, or less than 10 % of New York City’s population, is just too much trouble.

We cannot imagine, though, that Sarah is looking for a love fest when and if she does make a real run as a presidential candidate. But then she should know. After all, she has had few kind words for Obama.