Thanks! Now I own your political process.

Some seventy percent of Republicans are reported to watch Fox at least six times a week.  This will now be a major factor in deciding whom the Republican nominate for President for 2012.   Instead of allowing American citizens in Iowa and New Hampshire to decide who is viable and who is not, Rupert Murdoch intends to change the process.

Starting long before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary Fox will start giving exposure to potential Republican candidates so their viewers can start to develop opinions about them.  As this goes on Fox will conduct polls amongst its viewers to see who are the favorites and who is going nowhere.  Those doing well in the polls will start to attract money, enabling them to wage serious campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire.  The exception to this will be Mitt Romney who intends to fund his own campaign and rely on contributions from the LDS (Later Day Saints, or Mormons).  But no amount of money will help him just as it didn’t last time.

One can easily surmise that this will make Sarah Palin the favorite especially since Rupert will rely on his vast media empire to get her the nomination and enable her to be elected.  One wonders what the Wall Street Journal writers must experience as they write their slavish praise for Palin.  Surely they gag when they do it but a job is a job, and in this economy we all take what we can get.

If  things go according to plan Palin will have the highest polls and a considerable amount of money without having to spend time going to fundraisers or making phone calls to wealthy contributors.  She will knock off Romney in Iowa and pull an upset in New Hampshire just as McCain bested Romney there last time.  In all probability only Huckabee will be left standing besides Palin and she will crush him in South Carolina. Momentum will build and she will have locked up the nomination by the time of the convention.  Polls will  show her carrying the Solid South including Texas and Oklahoma.  Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Nevada and Utah will fall into line as will Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, West Virginia, Wyoming and Montana, with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin leaning.

It doesn’t matter what gaffs she will make.  When she referred to North Korea as an American ally on the Glenn Beck Show no one cared.  Beck whispered “South Korea,” and responded, “Yeah, South Korea.”

Season's greetings from your ally North Korea!

She has denounced Michelle Obama’s effort to get young people to exercise and have a healthy diet as unjustifiable government interference with parents as they raise their children.  Never mind that one in three Americans is obese and that one in three will suffer from diabetes and that the military has to reject one in three recruits for being overweight.

John McCain has recently said that Palin is like Ronald Reagan. Whatever one may think of Reagan’s policies, he served as governor of California for two four-year terms which is akin to running a medium-sized country.  By itself California has the eighth largest economy in the world.  Palin, on the other hand, was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska then resigned before completing her term as governor because she chose not to defend herself against a myriad of ethics violations charges.

But her book tour will take her all over the country and she has her show on Fox as well as her “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”.  She is everywhere, raking in the money and greeting her adoring fans.  Rupert understands what no one else does; that politics in America has been transformed by the phenomenon of celebrity.  Palin has become the Kim Kardashian of politics; she is famous for being famous. She has enormous name recognition, unlike Tim Paulenty who has to keep explaining who he is to the sparse crowds who come out to see him.

The fact is no one cares what Palin stands for as long as she is against “the government” without ever having to specify what programs she would cut or reduce or create.  She is the candidate that Nathanael West might have invented, that iconic semi-dominatrix adored by conservative men and resented by conservative women.  Not to worry; those resentful conservative women will do as they are told and vote for Palin as well. The odds favor Palin’s election, even if she thinks North Korea is an American ally. Why? Because Rupert says so. And what he says goes.