straight outta Wasilla

What happened to the special needs baby? Sarah Palin's experience as a working mother (hockey mom) seemed to be one of the qualifications she claimed for herself as McCain's vice-presidential nominee, thus offering herself as a 21st century Frances Willard. Since most of her other qualifications have either turned out not to be true or to be less than compelling, I thought the hockey mom angle would be prominent (and the baby would be a ubiquitous presence).

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I saw David Brooks on one of the Sunday morning shows. His prediction about her upcoming debate performance was not encouraging; he said she was "not stupid" and that she would rise to the level of "mediocre" in the debate. Laura Bush noted that Palin lacked a sufficient foreign policy background. And Tina Fey continues to provide the most incisive presentation of the strengths of the Governor.

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Governor Palin appears to be a continuance of the trend in the Republican party to present under-whelming candidates for the highest offices: Quayle and Bush blazed a trail for Palin. Quayle never got a sniff of actual power. Bush did: and the consequences are well known. Like Quayle, Palin is a boutique choice, who appeals to a select demographic group among Republican voters. For other voters, who don't hunt moose, who don't view polar bears as predators of humans, who don't believe abortion should be banned even in cases of rape, and who know what the Bush doctrine is without prompting, Palin is only a curiosity and occasion for mirth.

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The McCain-Palin sit-down with Katie Couric (who, inadvertently, is becoming the Edward Morrow of this campaign) reminded me of a high school parent-teacher meeting, of a father explaining why his child shouldn't have received a C grade in a social studies course.

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I noticed Palin made a remark about having heard about Joe Biden while she was still in grade school: "'I'm looking forward to meeting him,'" she continued. "'I've never met him. I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, the second grade.'"

I suppose she first heard about John McCain while she was, like, still in utero.

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On the other hand, the fact that she's "average," that she doesn't know things she should know if she's planning to be vice-president, are assets for a sizable segment of the electorate. This segment resents "smart people" and, like Palin, probably doesn't read a newspaper on a regular basis. Palin's social trajectory mirrors their own and they are proud to find that "one of us" has made it: Governor today, vice-president tomorrow. She talks like them, her family reminds them of their own family. Nothing about Palin makes them feel inadequate. It may turn out that Palin's "inadequacies" are keeping McCain close in the race with Obama.