Opinion

Sarah Palin, weapon of mass distraction

Sarah Palin is going rogue. The Democrats are going rottweiler.

Liberals in the media make heinous personal attacks, dress up quibbles and debating as “fact-checking” and compare her to such noxious harridans as Evita Peron and Madonna. Newsweek went with a cover photo of a picture of her in running shorts to degrade her to the level of a spokesmodel and Stephen Colbert broke character to call her book “a steaming pile of s – – -.” They called her a “deeply disturbed person” (Andrew Sullivan) “unhinged” (ibid), a “delusional fantasist” (ibid; Andrew’s been a busy lad) and even — this is really low — “the leader of the Republican party.”

To all of these liberal attacks I say: well played, my friends. Take a bow.

Hate-drunk Democrats are possibly not even aware of what a savvy political move they are carrying out.

By attacking the former governor of a state smaller by population than Westchester County, a woman whose chances of being the next president are about the same as Nancy Pelosi’s, Democrats aren’t wasting their time at all. They are distracting conservatives and changing the subject.

Conservatives should be, but aren’t, completely focused on one idea. It’s liberalism, stupid.

Last week, Obama looked exceptionally weak, naive and disingenuous, even for him: He got a knee in the face when he bowed to China; he admitted his promise to close Gitmo by January was the bloviation conservatives have always said it was; his attorney general invited terrorists to bring their Cirque du Jihad to New York so they can put the US national security apparatus on trial (and added that Obama wasn’t even part of the decision); the claims about stimulus-provided jobs turned out to involve lots of fictitious work in nonexistent congressional districts; a second Democratic senator threatened to help filibuster the health bill; and Afghanistan and Iran grew more dire as each hour brought the president inching ever closer to thinking about meeting to discuss the possibility of suggesting the next half-hearted response.

So what preoccupied the nation? Bill Belichick’s 4th and two call. And the book tour of an unemployed former governor of a very small state.

I roared along with every other conservative while I sat in the arena in Minneapolis during that unforgettable hour when Palin became a sensation, and I still like her a lot. Philosophically she’s the daughter of Ronald Reagan. But she also has big liabilities, too many to make her a real candidate for president in 2012.

Ditching Alaska proved that she was what her enemies (Democrats, the press, the McCain staff) said she was: a flake. Getting outwitted by that intellectual grandmaster Katie Couric was embarrassing, but it wasn’t unforgivable. Taking an incomplete on your first major office in politics is unforgivable. It’s like walking away from the Vietnam War because you got a boo-boo on your forearm and got yourself a Purple Heart for it.

Palin couldn’t handle the Democratic Party machine attacks, the hostile press and the gotcha industry of Alaska? Assuming she intends to run for president in three years (and I do — otherwise why is there a SarahPAC ad on the conservative sites?), it’s as if she quit the Wiffle Ball circuit and started dropping hints she was ready to play for the Yankees.

It is obvious that Palin isn’t going to be the next president. “She doesn’t seem able to articulate the case for conservatism in a manner that is compelling or even particularly persuasive,” former Bush aide Peter Wehner wrote on Commentary’s blog.

We need a candidate with at least some of Palin’s star power, but the candidate must also be able to speak with confidence and depth about any public issue. Much of the time, this means an ability to speak fluent B.S. Palin speaks this language like a tourist frantically thumbing through a phrase book.

Our candidate must have significant leadership experience, preferably with success in the private sector. And he or she should have a really boring family situation that doesn’t involve many mentions of Playgirl magazine.

If only 28% of the public considers Palin qualified to be the chief executive, as one poll reported, forget her, at least for now. She needs about 12 years in the Senate, not just a few hours on the chat shows.

Republicans know all of this deep down, but we keep talking up her candidacy, looking for glimmers of hope in the polls, giving her attention and even sending her money when we should be refusing to take the bait. We never took Andrew Sullivan seriously before; why get aggravated by him now?