Part One –
Maybe we don’t need a crystal ball to see Sarah Palin’s future. Maybe we just need to gaze into the the prescient world of Charlie Sheen. He does, after all, seem to be walking an almost parallel path with the tortured ex-half-governor.
Two nights ago a sold-out crowd of Detroit fans began walking out of Charlie’s first-ever live performance just 20 minutes into his act. Comments at the door ranged from “…worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” to the observation that his poorly delivered and poorly chosen opening jokes about Detroit being a crack town full of car thieves had gone over badly. At the end of the day, there’s a difference between stand-up comedy and comic acting. Being good at one doesn’t pre-suppose you’ll be good at the other. If only Charlie were listening to the advice proffered from his agents.
But Charlie ceased taking professional advice in favour of listening only to his inner voice – the voice that guarantees him the people saying drugs and alcohol are killing him – lie.
Charlie Sheen had a brilliant career ahead of him. He hadn’t stepped on too many toes prior to landing the gig as Charlie in the hit series Two and a Half Men. His promiscuous behavior was treated by the public in general as adorable rather than womanizing. His public tippling in the past had been treated by the media on the whole as non-venomous. Tame in comparison to stars like Mel Gibson.
But the universal principle of uncontrolled drug and alcohol consumption is voraciously predictable. In the end, they will strip you of everything you ever deemed valuable. Fame. Friends. Family. And then they take more. Self respect. Health. Longevity.
Charlie Sheen is in full-blown denial and everyone looking on can see it but him. He’s lost one of the best roles a sitcom actor could ever hope to land. Not only did it bring him considerable popularity, it was job security at its finest because the role became the actor – became the role. That synergism guaranteed Charlie Sheen a secure financial future if he just stayed loyal to his craft and didn’t fritter it away.
The shoes of Charlie Harper will not successfully be filled by another actor. At least not in the near future. Should Charlie Sheen break out of his stupor and take action to clean up his life, his act and make amends enough to resurrect the series, the other actors will have already moved on, grown up and perhaps not have the forbearance to forgive Charlie the man for having chucked their chance at financial security into the trash.
Sarah Palin believed her overnight rise to national recognition gave her unlimited political and celebrity sway and that her success in one automatically procured her success in the other. To some degree she was correct. But this is where her addiction steps up to betray her.
No, I am not for a moment implying Sarah Palin abuses drugs or alcohol. I’m saying she abuses life. And that amounts to the same thing. Sarah’s addiction is to her own hubris. And that overbearing pride will be her undoing.
Oz Mudflats 
April 5, 2011 at 7:05 am
Yes, yes it will. . . . .
April 5, 2011 at 10:52 am
Interesting post … but while I don’t necessarily think Sarah Palin abuses “recreational” drugs or alcohol, I think she is on meds of some kind and doesn’t always take them appropriately, hence the slurring of words, the rapid speech at times, the way her eyes look half closed, the wetting of her lips with her tongue,… etc. (other little behaviors): maybe even why she seems to wear wigs frequently.
April 5, 2011 at 9:22 pm
I think you said it all when you stated Charlie the actor became Charlie the character. That is the problem with Palin. She’s become a character in her own little sitcom of a life. She has no idea what or who she is anymore and no one in her camp of peeps will tell her to snap out of it. There’s just too much money and power to break up the series. It won’t end until she pulls a full, public melt down like Sheen is doing.
April 6, 2011 at 12:49 am
Very good article. And I agree with daisydem and Gindy52 ahead of my comment. I just hope that her extreme evagelical followers will not grow in number; and, that good people who are being misled because they are too busy to spot her problems will take notice.
The good people who are wound up in their own lives and do not truth check and pay attention will be a problem as well as those know there is a problem but are too lazy to vote. These are the people who will allow the radicals to win positions in charge of our lives. At the moment Sarah Palin’s positive numbers are few but they are very vocal and she is a self promotion disease.
April 6, 2011 at 3:00 am
What you say is sadly true. But how long can SP’s train wreck keep going? She has been a caricature of herself for so long, it is like there is nothing there when you peer closely at her. She is not even a half way decent mother to her children, and she can’t even call herself a hockey mom any more.
April 7, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Mary W., very pertinent comments. Certain of my family members may be getting tired of my saying, “If people got off their lazy asses to vote in the last election (2010), we would not be having these problems.”
People are having to survive. This I understand. But please, take a small chunk of your time to get involved w/ politics–educate yourself, even 15 minutes a week to start, and/or make a financial contribution. You will be surprised what you will learn.