Sarah Palin Is in the News Again Losing Against New York Times

Sarah Palin, who murdered John McCain’s opportunity to be the 44th president, is in the news again.

Although one can only assume that some events would have taken history in a totally unexpected direction, a few are extremely possible. Three of the most likely involve 2000, 2008, and 2016 elections.

Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but the Supreme Court awarded the Electoral College votes to George W. Bush. For some, Bush will always be known as the second-worst president in history. Yet, people can look back and believe that if Gore had become the 43rd president, 9/11 might have been prevented, the United States would not have invaded Afghanistan or Iraq, and the Great Recession of 2008 would never have happened.

In 2016, without the interference of Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton would have also won the Electoral College. The nation would have remained the most respected country in the world. She would have continued the recovery begun under President Obama’s administration. The government would have served all Americans. The division of the nation would have been far less drastic. When she was warned about the coming pandemic, late in 2019, as president, Clinton would have taken immediate action, and tens of thousands of lives would have been saved.

The third is the most likely of all. In 2008, John McCain won the Republican nomination. He was very popular with Republicans. Some Independents, including this author, were torn between Obama and a qualified, patriotic man who this author knew reasonably well from the pages written about him in several publications.

However, the late Senator McCain guaranteed himself defeat with a singular instance of poor judgment. He selected the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate.

As a member of the Tea Party, she was an extremist whose qualifications were nil. She sought the limelight, ignoring that she was not running for president. She was Senator McCain’s running mate. She became hated by Democrats and Independents. Palin prevented McCain from securing the votes of most Independents and some crossover Democrats. It might have been a close election, but Palin secured victory for President Obama.

On Monday, Palin lost again.

She filed a lawsuit against the New York Times, claiming that she was defamed by the Times unfairly linking her to a 2011 shooting spree in Arizona that killed six and wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords.

With the jury out for deliberation, the judge dismissed all charges against the newspaper giant. Judge Jed Rakoff stated that her lawyers “failed to produce adequate evidence that the newspaper knew what it wrote about her was false or acted recklessly toward indications it was false.”

Palin joins her idol, Donald Trump, in becoming one of America’s biggest losers.

Rakoff also said that he would allow the jury to continue its deliberations. He believes that there will be an appeal from Palin’s lawyers, and the jury’s decision could be of some importance.

Palin is the ultimate “poison pill.” Like Trump, her vile and baseless rhetoric and “folksy style” have lost their appeal to all but the most extreme right-wing politicians and their supporters.

Op-ed by James Turnage
Edited by Jeanette Vietti

Sources:

Politico: Judge throws out Palin libel case against New York Times; by Josh Gerstein
Boston Globe: Judge to dismiss Palin libel lawsuit against New York Times; by Jeremy W. Peters

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