Sarah Palin's Magic

by Diane Wilson

Sarah Palin isn't going away.

Never far from the public spotlight, Palin was in the news this past week over Copenhagan and climate change. The Huffington News reports on an exchange between talk radio's Laura Ingraham and Palin, in which Palin says she is not sure whether she wishes to debate Al Gore on the issue of climate change. Nothing to do with competence. According to Palin, "it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum....if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators I'll get clobbered because, you know, they don't want to listen to the facts."

Okay, that's clear -- she's right, he's wrong. Very reassuring to know that Sarah Palin alone has the correct information and that the rest of the world is making an issue out of climate change when it is not.

Ingraham kept asking Palin about debating Al Gore, perhaps in a proper debate format. Palin's response: "I don't know, I don't know. Oh, he wouldn't want to lower himself, I think, to, you know, my level to debate little old Sarah Palin from Wasilla."

To my mind, this interview is quintessential Palin -- never mind, she doesn't know what she is talking about, just knock the other guy out. Ever the point guard, Palin still runs offense to deliver the message. And, it's always about her and how right she is and how victimized she is. This is personality politics at its best.

My politics and Palin's have nothing in common, and yet I enjoy her, which really disturbs me. Why? Sarah Palin is moderately bright. Not well educated. Good looking. Conservative. Every bone in my body thinks she is incapable of holding any reasonable office in the United States.

However, Palin is not going anywhere soon, because she is open, bright eyed, engaging and fun. Palin is very friendly. And while she talks about and does weird stuff (moose chili, snow machines, the infamous turkey slaughter), she is enthusiastic. Palin takes us to a place we would like to be, where few problems exist, and perhaps she even believes her simplistic narrative. I also think she's got a bit of Teflon in her because she rebounds nicely from skirmishes, unfazed.

Sarah Palin makes the Republican Right Wing more reasonable in a crazy way, and certainly more palatable, which is very spooky. This is clearly the secret to Sarah Palin's success, and the reason she has a good crack at being the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012. And that means people -- all people -- better start paying attention to Palin, like her or not.