Afghanistan and Palin

If anyone is still interested in the debate between Richard and me on Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan, Richard has reopened it in response to Frank Rich's column today, and then I answered. This can be found in the "comments" section under the previous post.

For anyone who may feel that I've neglected Sarah Palin lately, here's something.

Jay Leno lampooned her this way:

"And new reports on Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" bus tour. They say she's been traveling on private planes to various stops and then just hops in the bus at the local town. So, let's see what you got. You have Sarah Palin, who's no longer governor, who's promoting a book she didn't actually write by going on a bus tour which is not really a bus. Her big complaint? Politicians who aren't real."

To quote Liberace's reply when ridiculed, she's "crying all the way to the bank."

We should laugh while we can. Already, I see "Palin 2012" bumper stickers cropping up. This has nothing to do with presidential qualifications and everything to do with connecting with, and exploiting, a populist unrest among a certain group who suddenly feel that one of them has gained the spotlight, a position of power, and has a sharp tongue for those once referred to as "pointy headed intellectuals."

The New Yorker says "she represents the erasure of any distinction between the governing and the governed." And for many people, that is mighty appealing. Someone just like them could, they think, become president.

Last year, after Palin's sudden elevation, Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip ran a series featuring a little girl playing with her Sarah Palin Action Doll. Her liberal mother, aghast at her daughter's pretending, asked why she wanted her Sarah-doll to be president. Her answer: "Because she's like me; I don't know very much either."

This is her appeal. She's like those who feel disdained by the liberal elite, who they see as changing the American way of life -- only she is too feisty to be intimidated, and she gives it right back. Don't mess with a hocky-mom, moose-huntng, beauty queen, mother of five, Christian woman who is too busy to be governor. And she, or her handlers, have enough sense to protect this image as long as they can by keeping the press away from her speeches and by giving interviews only to friendly gal-pals or FoxNews.

She could be dangerous.

Ralph