The Governor Asserteth

September 11, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Media, Republican Party 

Tonight, a few hours short of being two weeks old, the infant science of Palintology (a term coined by a blogger the day after Gov. Sarah Palin’s selection, and popularized by the current issue of Newsweek) made a significant advance with the airing of part of an interview with the Republican vice-presidential candidate, conducted by ABC’s Charles Gibson in Fairbanks and broadcast on World News Tonight. (Further excerpts will air on Nightline tonight, and the full interview appears on ABC tomorrow night.)

So far, this science has been in a primitive stage of development, having more in common with the reading of sheep entrails and fear of dragons than with, say, modern meteorology or zoology. A particular example of this is a discussion of “zombie feminism” in today’s Salon by Rebecca Traister which opens with the author describing her recent terrifying dreams in which Gov. Palin figures, and concludes by drawing a comparison between the candidate and the Queen Alien – yes, from the movie series. But lest the reader think all is lost, Traister assures the reader that there is still hope – that if only Sen. Hillary Clinton can be prevailed upon to go, Ripley-like, into mortal combat with the Terror From Beyond The 49th Parallel, the Democrats might still have a chance.

(Traister is not alone in this desire. A post today in Gawker, about the concerns of Democratic strategists regarding Sen. Barack Obama’s handling of the Palin peril, attracted a comment which made a similar recommendation, adding the prudent suggestion that President Clinton be confined to a takeout joint on 125th Street while Armageddon was underway.)

But in recent days some Democrats have made progress in this branch of learning. Marc Fisher of the Washington Post’s Metro section attended the McCain-Palin rally in Fairfax, Virginia yesterday. In his article this morning he offered some observations which on the surface seemed to cater to the notions of older, diehard liberal Post readers – for example, that Gov. Palin’s appeal had more in common with that of the average reality-TV celebrity than with a working politician’s. But in his weekly chat at the Post’s site this afternoon he made it clear that he had seen something at work in the rally which could not be explained by the assumptions of liberal pundits and bloggers in recent days:

It is fruitless for the Democrats to insist solely that a campaign be about the so-called issues, both because campaigns are never strictly about issues, and because this is [...] a new twist on American politics, a ratcheting up of the idea that personal and group affinities are more important than expertise or experience. Sure, the Democrats and responsible Republicans should have it out on the issues and policies of the day, but the Democrats also need to engage in the place where they are uncomfortable–on the matter of how much Americans feel not only empathy, but a sense of shared lives and experiences, which is the key to Palin’s appeal.

Answering a person who offered an “all Sarah Palin shares with me is a chromosome” argument, Fisher noted:

But if you had been with me at the rally, you would have taken a step back as you heard women who created their own businesses and who very much believe that women get a raw deal in this society arguing that Palin’s story is their story, and that Palin’s trumpeting of her ability to balance family and work is every bit as important a feminist statement as Hillary Clinton’s talk about cracking up the glass ceiling.

Answering a reader who compared Palin’s appeal to the way in which voters have talked about President Bush as being “a guy you could have a beer with,” Fisher said:

I do think it’s more than just wanting to have a beer with the candidate. It really reflects a longing to vote for someone who might understand how much more difficult it has become to make a living, raise a family, and have a sane life and a real community in this country. The longing for someone who might get–and might even have experienced — those strains is palpable, and for all her imperfections — indeed, because of those imperfections, Palin appears to many as that sort of person.

And he observed that more than one woman at the Fairfax rally had told him that she felt as if Gov. Palin more than just understood her own life – that she had really lived that life.

Tomorrow, we may see more of that side of the governor on ABC when she discusses her family and early life. Tonight, she talked about national security and world affairs. Even John Nichols, blogging at the site of that journalistic citadel of the Left, The Nation, felt compelled to admit that she had covered the bases she needed to cover, had made no real missteps apart from her hesitant reply to Gibson’s question about the Bush Doctrine, and had again shown that she was not going to be a pushover:

She was too tense to really knock one out of the park. But she was confident enough to stand her ground.

And she will get better at this.

That’s what Democrats need to understand, The Republican nominee for vice president may be unprepared to serve as president. But she is prepared to campaign aggressively, and probably effectively, for her ticket.

Instead of waiting for a gotcha moment, Democrats should accept that Palin is sufficiently competent to meet the challenges of a modern American campaign – certainly better on her feet than the current President Bush, probably better than Quayle.

The thing that most impressed me about Gov. Palin’s appearance on World News Tonight was her assertiveness (which so many in the mainstream media would find a virtue if she were a liberal) and her assurance; when she spoke of sending her “firstborn” to Iraq she spoke with the kind of conviction that brings back memories of Ronald Reagan speaking of the “evil empire” and the need to “tear down this wall.” But Reagan had a half-century of public speaking under his belt, going back to his days at Eureka College; Sarah Palin has been in the game for little more than a decade, and never before on a national stage. As Nichols said, she is going to get better at this, which means that when she meets Sen. Joe Biden on October 2 for their single debate, he’d better avoid indulging in musings like the one yesterday in which he speculated that Hillary Clinton really might have made a better running-mate than himself. Marc Fisher observed in the above chat that one Obama campaign insider was speculating the other day that the Palin phenomenon would run out of steam in two weeks. If what we saw tonight was a foretaste of what will be seen tomorrow night on ABC, that person may be in for a shock come the end of September.

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