Sarah Palin

Excellent article in the Economist today about Sarah Palin and what she represents to the Republican Party. She is definitely someone who inspires of strong feelings from both sides of the aisles. For my own part, I have no idea what possessed John McCain to make her a national figure. But, I also think that we talk about her way too much, as she is basically irrelevant these days.

According to the Economist though, 44% of people think poorly of her while 45% have a positive view. And among Republicans she has a 73% approval rating, beating any other potential presidential nominee. So maybe she is not as irrelevant as I think.

I don't know if she truly desires to be president or not, but she is not really handling herself as if she does. She would be running for president with her experience consisting of being Mayor of Wasilla and Governor of Alaska for two years. Though according to Ted Sorenson (JFK's former speechwriter and right hand man), there is no job that prepares you to be president and the experience factor is overrated.

I do think that if someone can make it through the ordeal that a presidential campaign has become without screwing up, then they are probably qualified to be president. In such a campaign, every move is scrutinized and it is very easy to make a mistake. Anyone who makes it through something like this, probably meets the qualification test to be president. I do doubt, however, that Sarah Palin could make it through a full campaign.

People clearly like Sarah Palin because she represents every person, as opposed to the average politician who may appear to only represent elites. Great section from the Economist article:

Many Americans want as president someone who is exceptionally well-informed about public policy, who surrounds himself with experts, who weighs the evidence and then does what is best for the country. But few people are policy experts, so they often follow their hearts rather than their heads when deciding whom to vote for. Often, they assume that someone culturally similar to themselves will be more likely to look out for their interests. And that is why Mrs Palin is still so popular. There are an awful lot of Americans who see her as one of their own. She talks like them. She guts her own fish. She wears her faith on her sleeve. She obviously didn’t go to Harvard. And when people who did call her stupid or mock her faith or her family, her fans take it personally.

There is clearly a large segment of the population that identifies with Sarah Palin. Personally I did not like how she carried herself during the campaign, particularly when she would do things like talk about the "Pro-American parts of America" and say that Obama was "palling around with terrorists." I understand that the Vice President has to be a kind of attack dog, but this kind of rhetoric has no place in our politics. And this is exactly the kind of rhetoric that the Republican party needs to get away from and what turns off many immigrants.

She also represents the anti-intellectualism that has sprung up in the Republican party. For whatever reason, the idea has emerged that it is a bad thing to be too smart. And I think part of the blame for this comes from the politicians who are fairly intelligent and who do not do a very good job of showing people that they identify with their problems.