The Other Side: Sister Sarah

The Wingers are having a nice little scrum over Sarah Palin after this week's Vanity Fair profile of the Alaska Governor, and it has forced Republicans to ask themselves "What went wrong in Wasilla?" WaPo's resident curmudgeon Chuck Krauthammer does not have a very high opinion of her.

On the other hand, there are plenty of Republicans who believe she is the long-term future of the Republican Party: a post-feminist, pro-life, successful working mother who can attract moderates and women from across the racial spectrum, and stanch the outflow of Republican voters into Independent-land in a way the good ol' boy network never could.

My problems with Palin are this: She reminds me so much of George W. Bush that it's literally scary. The same carefully cultivated folksy charm, the same flashes of anger when challenged, the same sense of entitlement, the same screaming cries for attention and the need for people to like them, and the same displays of political cunning to manipulate the people, not manage the actual issues...all of those I see in the Sarahcuda's sneer. Like Bush, you do not want to cross her. Ever. We had eight years of President Ego Is More Important Than The Country (see Iraq). Not going to go for another four. I wholeheartedly agree with her supporters that she is in no way a stupid person, on the contrary I believe she's far more intelligent than she lets on, and far more intelligent than people give her credit for. But she's seen her intellect as something to hide, a liability in a world dominated by perception rather than substance. In a sense, that's her own fault. She wants people to underestimate her rather than being who she is. I don't think a person like that is a good leader.

The other problem is with the GOP itself. They are forming the same cult of personality they did around Dubya with Sarah Palin and her family for that matter...the same cult of personality they constantly attack Barack Obama for having. The entire exercise is lost on them, how they raised up a puppet king from the Crawford brush and made him out to be a great statesman, how now a former mayor from an Alaska town of a few thousand is the future of the country, but they say Barack Obama is nothing more than a community organizer, constantly attacking his lack of qualifications to be President.

It's one reason why I can't bring myself to vote for Republicans, even as a registered Independent. I know Democrats make mistakes and do idiotic things, but Republicans do all that and don't even question if it's an idiotic mistake, then repeat it.