Sarah Palin is the new star on the U.S. political scene, but the secret of her success borrows heavily from the man currently in charge, says John Bourke, political analyst for RT.

She is the current pin-up girl of American politics. On the front cover of the latest edition of Newsweek as I write, Sarah Palin is a veritable phenomenon in terms of her meteoric rise to fame.

On further reflection, however, it seems that her secret isn’t that complicated at all – in fact quite the opposite. Put simply, Sarah Palin is the female version of George W. Bush – and that is her secret weapon right there.

As a president whose current approval ratings are among the worst of any in American history, that perhaps seems an implausible explanation. But what is increasingly overlooked is the fact that George W. Bush was once a very popular figure in the U.S. and is, after all, one of its very few two-term presidents.

Post 9-11 he enjoyed a staggeringly high popularity of over 90% in the polls. Looking at this now, with his rating below the 30% mark, that seems hard to imagine – but it’s true. More relevant in terms of comparison is the broad based populist appeal that both Sarah Palin and George W. Bush share. It is the fundamental key to her success so far, just as it was for the current President when he first ran for the White House.

Back then, his opponent was Al Gore. We can all doubtless remember the voting mess in Florida, and the debacle of the hanging chads. But if we turn the clock back a little further, we should also bear in mind that the main reason Bush won was because he was perceived to be the candidate that ordinary, middle of the road voters could identify with. Gore was felt to be dull and grey in personality.

There was the infamous poll at the time that showed that the majority of voters would rather have a beer at the bar with George W. Bush than stuffy Al Gore.

And so now, almost a decade later, a new star has arrived on the political stage who  is using that very tactic all over again. The only difference with Sarah Palin is how much more blatant she is being, using the simplest form of populist appeal imaginable with her references to hockey Moms and Joe-six pack.

Her shameless, cynical populism, one based almost upon the logic of the lowest common denominator, is close to spectacular in it’s cleverness. There is already chatter in some conservative circles that she may already be grooming herself to run as the Republican Party presidential candidate in 2012.

The rank and file party members adore her for what they see as the way she sticks her thumb in the eye of elitist liberals and the Christian right believe she is precisely what they need. But popular as this tactic is proving to be, it hides a worrying and alarming dimension which is slowly being picked up on by the media, and even some conservatives too. To be able to appeal to the ordinary voters of middle America, in the playbook of Sarah Palin, is to show that you can relate to them because you are one of them.

Therein, however, lies the danger.

The office of the President of the United States of America is by all accounts the most difficult and demanding in the world. By it’s very essence it therefore requires an extraordinary person with extraordinary skills to be able to do it. Under the circumstances, the notion that you would want anyone ordinary in there, doing an extraordinary job, clearly makes little sense at all.

The hockey Moms of Anytown might be competent at running the house and balancing the family cheque book at home, but that is a far cry from managing the entire U.S. economy and it’s trillion dollar budget deficit in a new global marketplace.
Just imagine where the country would end up if average Joe six-pack, dressed in his football shirt, complete with beer and nachos in hand, is put in charge.

If I am not mistaken, it seems like we have just spent the last eight years doing exactly that. It is easy to see the allure of the politics of populism for the Sarah Palins of this world.  After all, we, the voter, always like to feel that we can identify with our leaders in power. And we should be able to too.

Empathy however, and the ability to feel the voter’s pain, is not a substitute for having the skills and ideas and talent required to solve the problems causing that pain in the first place. That is something we would all be well advised to bear in mind. If we don’t, then come 2012, we may well end up going through another eight years of what we have just been through.

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