Palin's Unfit to Lead (and Other False Assumptions)

Sometimes even reporters stumble upon the truth.

Did you know Sarah Palin was a charismatic and competent governor who took on the political establishment in her home state of Alaska? Politico accidentally lets the secret out:

The emails from her governorship, released Friday, brought back the memory of a long-lost Palin: the popular, charismatic, competent woman of the people.

Wow. Imagine if someone in the mainstream media had described her as a popular, charismatic, competent woman of the people when she came on the scene three years ago. Imagine if instead of trying to play gotcha politics, responsible reporters had actually reported the facts about her record - a positive record in Alaska. But wait, the emails redeem her even further:

She was hands-on and averse to partisan politics. She championed openness in government and had normal relations with the media. She was a little starstruck by her interactions with national politicians but unafraid to do battle with the chief executives of the world’s largest oil companies.

Amazing what a little empirical evidence will do to set the record straight. Unfortunately, the feeling of generosity at Politico is short-lived. Getting back to their preferred portrayal of the governor, writer Molly Ball reminds us the kind of person Palin really is:

Together with the newly released, pro-Palin documentary “The Undefeated,” which focuses on her rise to the spotlight, the emails are reminders of a sympathetic figure who was not yet the brittle, divisive caricature Palin has become. [emphasis mine]

And how, one might ask, did Palin become a brittle and divisive caricature? Is it some piece of legislation she signed into law? Something unsavory about her personal life? Fat chance. It's because the minute she was tapped as a vice-presidential candidate, the Left along with Hollywood and the hoity-toity political class had a desire to paint her that way. A smear job was conducted in order to ensure victory for their anointed prince and scare self-made, pro-life women from voicing their conservative values. One could reasonably conclude that if Palin had never accepted the GOP veep nomination and remained in the remote political wilderness of Alaska fulfilling her duties as governor, all the praiseworthy descriptors would still apply.

As I wrote about previously, no political figure has been attacked more viciously in my lifetime than Sarah Palin. The objections to Palin's leadership have never been objections to policy or objections to her governing style in Alaska. She has flubbed no executive decision as governor or mayor. The objection to Sarah Palin is that she's Sarah Palin, that she hasn't gone to Harvard or Yale (she's working class all the way) and that she doesn't sound like Barack Obama when he's speaking from his teleprompter. For the record, neither does Barack Obama (see below):

We have been told repeatedly that political animals like Anthony Weiner, despite his flaws, are the smart type of Washington leaders we need more of and the Sarah Palins of the world are divisive simpletons unfit to lead our nation. When will we stop listening to such false kernels of conventional wisdom from the political class?

Palin's emails don't prove there is a long-lost Sarah Palin as Politico suggests. Just that a nation has lost its mind, and any ounce of journalistic integrity is now buried under 24,000 documents.