> Hatin' Palin > > She's not the reason Americans can't stand their politicians. > > By DANIEL HENNINGER > > > The abuse being heaped on Sarah Palin is such a cheap shot. > The complaint against the Alaska governor, at its most basic, is > that she doesn't qualify for admission to the national political > fraternity. Boy, that's rich. Behold the shabby frat house that says > it's above her pay grade. > > NBC > Sarah Palin appears with Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night Live. > > Congress has the lowest approval rating ever registered in the > history of polling (12%!). She isn't the reason polls are showing > people want the entire Congress fired, with many telling pollsters > they themselves could do a better job. > > Sarah Palin didn't design a system of presidential primaries whose > length and cost ensures that only the most obsessional personalities > will run the gauntlet, while a long list of effective governors > don't run. > > These rules have wasted the electorate's time the past three > presidential elections, by filling the debates with such zero- > support candidates as Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Al Sharpton, > Duncan Hunter, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden (8,000 total votes), Wesley > Clark and Alan Keyes. > > Daniel Henninger discusses the "cheap shots" taken at Sarah Palin > and highlights some problems with the political system. (Oct. 23) > Out of this process has fallen a Democratic nominee who entered the > U.S. Senate in 2005 fresh off a stint in the Illinois state > legislature, with next to no record of political accomplishment. He > may be elected mainly because, in Colin Powell's word, he is thought > to be "transformational." One may hope so. > > By not bothering to look very deeply at the details beneath either > candidate's governing proposals, the media have created a lot of > downtime to take free kicks at Gov. Palin. My former colleague, > Tunku Varadarajan, has compiled a glossary of Palin invective, and > I've added a few: "Republican blow-up doll," "idiot," "Christian > Stepford wife," "Jesus freak," "Caribou Barbie," "a dope," "a fatal > cancer to the Republican Party," "liar," "a national disgrace" and > "her pretense that she is a woman." > > If American politics is at low ebb, it is because so many of its > observers enjoy working in its fetid backwash. > > The primary discomfort with Gov. Palin is the notion that she > doesn't have sufficient experience to be president, that Sen. McCain > should have picked a Washington hand seasoned in the ways of the > world. Such as? Here's an opinion poll question: > > If as Joe Biden suggests the U.S. is likely to be tested by a > foreign enemy next year, who of the following would you rather have > dealing with it in the Oval Office: Nancy (of Damascus) Pelosi, > Harry Reid, John Edwards, Joe (the U.S. drove Hezbollah out of > Lebanon) Biden, Mike Huckabee, Geraldine Ferraro, Tom DeLay, Jimmy > Carter or Sarah Palin? > > My pick? Gov. Palin, surely the most grounded, common-sense person > on that list of prime-time politicians. > > The established political pros let the selection process come to > this. Presidential candidates such as John McCain and Barack Obama > have become untethered from the discipline of party institutions, > largely because the parties have lost coherence. So we get celebrity > candidates made famous, fundable and electable by dint of their > access to the Beltway media. For voters, this election is a national > Hail Mary. > > For nearly two years, all the major candidates have rotated through > our lives as solitary personalities attended by careerist campaign > professionals. Barack, Hillary, Rudy, Mitt, Mike, McCain. When the > moment arrived to pick a running mate, input from the parties was > minimal. That famous party boss, Caroline Kennedy, advised Barack > Obama. They picked a three-decade denizen of the Senate. John > McCain's obligation was himself and his endless slog to this big > chance. > > The quick surge of party-wide excitement and campaign contributions > after his selection of Sarah Palin made clear that the McCain > candidacy was moribund and headed for a low-turnout debacle. If he > had picked any of the plain-vanilla men on his veep short list -- > Pawlenty, Sanford, Romney or Lieberman -- they'd have won approval > from the media's college of cardinals, and killed his campaign. > > The stoning of Sarah Palin has exposed enough cultural fissures in > American politics to occupy strategists full-time until 2012. We now > see there is a left-to-right elite centered in New York, Washington, > Hollywood and Silicon Valley who hand down judgments of the nation's > mortals from their perch atop the Bell Curve. > > It seems only yesterday that the most critical skill in presidential > politics was being able to connect to people in places like Bronko's > bar or Saddleback Church. When Gov. Palin showed she excelled at > that, the goal posts suddenly moved and the new game was being able > to talk the talk in London, Paris, Tehran or Moscow. She looks about > a half-step behind Sen. Obama on that learning curve. > > Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," > lives on the forward wave of American life. This week he gave his > view of Sarah Palin to EW.com: "I think Palin will continue to be > underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with > people, and she's powerful. Her politics aren't my politics. But you > can see that she's a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly > gracious woman. This was her first time out and she's had a huge > impact. People connect to her." > > Uh-oh. Sounds like the cancer could be in remission. > > Write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum. > > > > >
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