supertroopers

Now that the troopers have come home to roost, we know who wears the Dick Cheney mask in the Palin household: Todd. However, I've noticed that the McCain campaign blames Obamayers for forcing Todd "to use the governor's office and the resources of the governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired." Family First! That One wouldn't know anything about that.

palinoconservative

Governor Palin seems to be a novice in a lot of things, a necessity which she has turned into virtue. Ou la chevre est lie e faut qu'elle broute. It makes her a maverick by default. In other words, factual ignorance is political bliss; grammatical errors and tortured syntax are actually representations of the righteous rage of the Sixpack demographic, which will not be fooled again by predatory lenders or the intellectual elite. Not knowing something makes her an outsider to people who do know something. And this is a good thing.

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Peggy Noonan issued a warning about the response to criticism of Palin in today's Wall Street Journal:

We saw last week, too, a turn in the McCain campaign's response to criticisms of Mrs. Palin. I find obnoxious the political game in which if you expressed doubts about the vice presidential nominee, or criticized her, you were treated as if you were knocking the real America -- small towns, sound values. 'It's time that normal Joe Six-Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency,' Mrs. Palin told talk-show host Hugh Hewitt. This left me trying to imagine Abe Lincoln saying he represents 'backwoods types,' or FDR announcing that the fading New York aristocracy deserves another moment in the sun. I'm not sure the McCain campaign is aware of it -- it's possible they are -- but this is subtly divisive. As for the dismissal of conservative critics of Mrs. Palin as 'Georgetown cocktail party types' (that was Mr. McCain), well, my goodness. That is the authentic sound of the aggression, and phony populism, of the Bush White House. Good move. That ended well.

This leads me to wonder whether Peggy Noonan has missed the point, that a new formation of conservatism has coalesced around Sarah Palin. Who are the Palinoconservatives moved by the Governor's candidacy? No doubt they aren't part of Noonan's social circle. Palinoconservatives are beer drinkers (e.g., Coors) and Alaskan mothers who schlepp hockey equipment and children (e.g., decent, law-abiding people). Palinoconservatives are self-styled mavericks. They don't put much stock in book learning or polished speech. Above all, Palinoconservatives oppose the three Gs of evil: government, gay marriage, and gun control. While other conservatives identify with Teddy Roosevelt (e.g., John McCain), Palinoconservatives would rather field dress a bull moose than vote for one. Palinoconservatives aren't Neo- or Paleo-; they have little use for think-tanks or position papers. They would rather look at Salma Hayek than read Friedrich Hayek. They are the new face of the Republican party, post-Reagan, post-Gingrich, post-Bush.

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.

getting to know Sarah Palin

Last night was Sarah Palin's second minute of fame at the Republican National Elder Hostel. I was shocked and relieved to find out that Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton (I imagine the remaining, disappointed Clintonistas are not so relieved). What's curious is her apparent selling point for McCainites: she's an average person with an average family. Sure, she reminds me of my (hypothetical) next door neighbor hockey mom; I'm sure my neighbor also hunts bear, can field dress a dead moose, and has found time to threaten to ban books in the local library and join a secessionist political party. Talk about Country First!

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Anyway, I'm relieved to have learned that a person I suspected to be average is, in fact, average (leaving aside the book banning part). What our intrepid media corps will reveal soon is whether this conservative Christian with an unwed, pregnant daughter (I'm suddenly longing for Dan Quayle's jeremiad against the unwed and pregnant fictional character Murphy Brown) is an average Amy Grant or an average Gretchen Wilson.