2008 Election

Palin: No Harriet Miers

By Maegan Carberry ⋅ October 21, 2008 ⋅   Email this post ⋅  Digg This ⋅  Share on Facebook ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

From the guy in line next to me at 7Eleven last Thursday who handed me a “No F@#$ing Way!” Palin sticker to a variety of observations shared by friends and colleagues, many people in my circle have predicted recently that Barracuda is a blip on the radar of governance and public discourse (and, let’s face it, librarian porn fantasies).  I disagree, however. I think she’s here to stay for a long time, and I can’t wait to see who she really is. 

A lot of people argue that Sarah Palin detracts from John McCain’s relatively respectable reputation, but I’m wondering if it’s rather the opposite. I can’t believe that a woman of her capabilities (scrappy and strategic, if not classically intellectual) is incompetent. What’s more likely is, as we saw when Papa McCain came to babysit her in Round 2 with Katie Couric, that the war hero we’ve all admired over the years has quite a contemptuous side when it comes to women. Tina Brown characterized it well on The Daily Beast today: 

“I suspect that Palin is harboring an angry contempt for her running mate and his handlers. The way they chose her in the first place reeked of dismissiveness. When Hillary got whacked, they made it clear that any skirt on the ticket would do, as long as she was sure to rouse the base. Then they treated her as a retard and wouldn’t let her talk to a reporter. The Couric debacle was just about those idiots giving her the wrong lines. Rove, now bestowed with magician status by both parties, never allowed that to happen to Bush.”

In addition to the subtle smirk she couldn’t entirely conceal on SNL over the weekend, there is further evidence emerging that the real moose-hunting baller within is waiting to escape and eclipse the senior citizen statesman’s shackles. From Julie Bosman on the NYT Caucus blog yesterday: 

“These days, Gov. Sarah Palin seems like a candidate trying to wriggle free of her handlers. On Sunday night, she twice took questions from reporters, the first time on an airport tarmac without her press staff’s knowledge. After landing in Colorado Springs late Sunday, Ms. Palin marched over to a local television crew and began answering questions on camera, sending the traveling press corps sprinting in pursuit, and her press staff scrambling.

‘Get Tracey,’ one campaign aide barked into his headset, calling for Tracey Schmitt, Ms. Palin’s ever-watchful spokeswoman, who rushed over to supervise the impromptu press conference. (Ms. Schmitt, looking distressed, tried several times to cut it off with a terse ‘Thank you!’ in between questions, to no avail.)”

I might be worried if I were Tracey, too, but not that the Governor would further embarrass herself or the campaign. I’d be worried that letting the woman speak and establish herself as the real leader she is would underscore and legitimize her extreme ideological platform, further polarizing the GOP ticket from what Americans are looking for in this election.