Another flood...

... of text messages from Ryan have shown me that he is, again, cursing the very air our President breathes.

Obama has made another "apology" for American failings while visiting a foreign power, and he has (again) lowered the perception of American foreign policy to a level of mediocrity usually reserved for tyrannical regimes and fly-by-night dictators. This time, he did so while attending the signing of a "treaty" that reduces our position of strength while gaining us very little. We can now transport supplies and weapons across Russian-controlled air-space (not something we HAD to be able to do, obviously... we haven't NEEDED this for the last 7 years, have we?) while at the same time we are committed to reducing the numbers of our nuclear arsenal to less than 1,700.

Mind you, I'm not against the reduction of our nuclear arsenal. I think that 1,500+ devices averaging a delivery yield of 15-25 kilotons on a modern platform capable of targeting accurately an individual building from the other side of the planet is still a more-than-adequate deterrent to attack from rogue nations. I just hate to see our President signing away American advantages in defense and force projection capability with no measurable or commensurate concession from the other side of the table. I also fail to see how our ability to compromise American strengths for no measurable advantage gains us anything with places like China, Iran or North Korea.

Of course, Ryan ranted on about Palin's resignation and her possible bid for a spot on the 2012 ticket. I'm far less inclined to think this is going to happen than he is, though...

Her resignation comes at a time when it will now appear to most Americans that she couldn't take the heat of the ethics investigation and/or the press. Not a ringing endorsement for a Presidential bid, is it? She has an opportunity to make waves in the "conservative movement" however, and (with a little forethought and some advice from the likes of the Bund), she can certainly put her newly-aquired free time to good use. A book deal and a string of speaking engagements will keep her in funds and in the public's eye (but probably not the media's eye, which also might be a good thing). Liberals are going to see her as irrelevant, but moderates and conservatives might find what she has to say important... even topical and timely, with the right speech writers. She will have mountains of time to show America that family values mean something, and that the media's biased focus on her during the campaign was slanderous... at best.

The GOP and conservatives in general are suffering from a crisis of image, I think. Even today, the "icons" of contemporary conservative values are the likes of Limbaugh, Gingrich, DeLay, Bush and Cheney... white, rich, old and representative of the "old days". What better contrast to that sort of perception could be found than that we see in a bright, very energetic, successful woman who has shown a dedication to family values and support of traditional family life than in a 40-something mother of a Downs baby? She can have an impact... no question... but she'll have to play to the media far mroe than she has in the past, and she'll have to do it in a way that keeps her "relevant" to today, and not focused on 2012.

I say that because America doesn't like losers. Only Nixon can boast of having won a bid after losing a bid (at least in the modern era), and no Democrats have done so since the end of Reconstruction. Palin wasn't as strong in '08 as Nixon was (who was the encumbant VP at the time of his first bid for the White House), and she'll be far less so, now that she has resigned her Governorship 14 months early because of political pressure. Even if she does choose to run, she'll be without much GOP support, as the "old guard" will undoubtedly want to throw their support into a Jindal, or Jeb (shudder) or some other young, fresh, successful candidate with no baggage.