Morning In Palinland

Although General Blogosphere Rule #17 states Andrew Sullivan will eventually ruin any legitimate Sarah Palin argument by going after Trig Palin, he hasn't quite descended that far yet this week and still has a real point to bring up about the Cult of Sarah:

If you are one of those people who think this person cannot become president of the United States, think again.

Two lines stood out for me. The first is a sign that she believes and her followers believe that she has a divine destiny. She is Esther, with a touch of martyrdom:

"I will live, I will die for the people of America."

The second was the Dolchstoss attack on the duly elected president of the United States:

"We need a commander-in-chief not a professor of law."

These two potent messages - delegitimizing Obama as "the other" and as a weak-kneed traitor to the troops, and casting herself as the avatar of the real America, ready to die for its survival - are political gold. Most politicians in liberal democracies shy somewhat from stating them so obviously, because they clearly invoke certain, shall we say, non-democratic forms. Not she.

The media, too scared be tarred as elitists, will never demand policy specifics from her; there is a huge constituency out there (rightly) outraged by Washington corruption and she now has the critical mantle of the rogue outsider; she can channel Christianism and fuse it with the slogans of phony "fiscal conservatism"; she will blame every lost job on Obama; and she will accuse him of betraying the troops and befriending America's enemies. Behind her are the Cheneyites. 

And if they Cheneyites view Sarah as their best ticket back to the White House, you'd better believe she'll get the nomination in 2012.  Political history has taught us that we always get the elected leaders that the electorate deserves to have, and right now we have a cranky, know-nothing electorate that demands instant gratification and is still quite creeped out by the black guy in the White House talking about giving health insurance, political asylum, first-class citizen rights and clean air to gays, terrorists, brown people and people who don't pay taxes.  It's coming at their expense.  "Where's my cut?" they say.  "I worked hard.  I played by the rules.  Where's my American Dream?"

And they think Sarah will give it to them.  She just threw her hat into the ring for 2012.

Sarah Palin doesn't have to have any answers, or policy specifics, or anything.  God will provide.  That's her platform.

We're screwed.