Aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind

...Palin won’t go gently into the good night, much as some Republicans in Washington might wish. She is not just the party’s biggest star and most charismatic television performer; she is its only star and charismatic performer. Most important, she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind. Palin gives this movement a major party brand and political plausibility that its open-throated media auxiliary, exemplified by Glenn Beck, cannot. She loves the spotlight, can raise millions of dollars and has no discernible reason to go fishing now except for self-promotional photo ops...

Frank Rich: She broke the GOP and now she owns it (New York Times)

Stretching beyond her range

Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she's a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

The Anchorage (AK) Daily News, explaning their editorial endorsement of Obama/Biden (25 October 2008)

"I have to say this... you're way hotter in person."

Genius metacameo from Alec Baldwin in Gov. Palin's cameo.

The Devil takes a nap

Joe Bageant wrote something very wise about Sarah Palin a few days back, which I'm just now getting around to reading due to vacation travel.

Joe (who I've exchanged e-mails with from time to time) is by his own description an "old socialist," not just a leftist; he's very wise about redneck culture, however, and as longtime enrevanche readers know, while I disagree pretty comprehensively with him on certain political and economic issues, I think much of his social analysis is spot-on.

Anyway. If you're an Obama supporter who's been publicly shrieking in horror about Governor Palin, please, please read what Uncle Joe has to say and consider how you're playing perfectly into the strategic goals of those you oppose:

Sarah Palin's real coup is that she brings out the snobbery of the left in their dismissal of her as an ignorant hick typical of small town red state America. They vastly underestimate her. Just like they have underestimated George Bush for the past eight years. While they laughed, George Bush managed to get everything he wanted and assist the looting of America in his spare time. No matter that he is vastly unpopular now even among Republicans. He has fulfilled his purpose to the powerful corporations and financial institutions that animate American politics. You do not have to be smart to be president, just malleable to the greater forces at work.

Yet Palin is not stupid. She may be religious and a right winger, but that doesn't mean she is stupid and incompetent (neither of which ever prevented an astute American politician from success, by the way.) She may be the last person any thinking leftist would want to see as vice president, but so far Sarah Palin has been a very successful politician. She has a high domestic approval rating and has soared to the top in record time. And each time Democrats and liberals take a shot at her religious beliefs and moral choices, which just happen to be those of tens of millions of heartland voting Americans, she gains political ground, or at a minimum, holds some for herself and McCain.

[...]

...[O]ne thing I know for sure. Liberals and leftists, theoretically at least, have more common national interests with red state heartland white working class Americans than any other current political group. And the way to communicate that is NOT sneering at the only candidate who resembles ordinary Americans, their beliefs and lifestyle. When we do that, the Republicans grin like Cheshire cats, our global financial oppressors turn the screws down a bit harder, and the Devil takes a nap, because his work is done for him by fools using the most efficient tools available -- arrogance and hubris.

Joe Bageant: Sarah Palin, Through The Toast Crumbs Dimly (30 September 2008)

"I'd like to use one of my lifelines..."