Yes, another Palin post.¹

I fully understand that the vast majority of McCain supporters find themselves in the position of simply having to ignore Palin’s lack of experience and, more importantly, her lack to date of actually engaging intelligently in the major questions of the day. I fully and totally understand that in a two-party race, voters have no choice but to cast their lots with the candidate who most closely mirrors their general policy preferences, and that sometimes means averting eyes to particularly bad aspects of one’s chosen candidate.²

What I find interesting (indeed, fascinating on one level and very frustrating on another) is the cognitive dissonance displayed by some in support of her selection. There is almost no evidence to date that she is ready to be the President of the United States (something that one would like a veep to be ready to be). And yet, if this is pointed out, there are attacks on the one doing the pointing out (not real defenses of Palin’s readiness–and where defenses are offered they are non-substantive, such as saying she is the next Reagan or the next Truman). Note: if one wishes to assert that Palin is a good choice for veep, some positive evidence in that regard is needed, not wild fantasies about might be.

Her answer on foreign policy experience discussed the other day was a joke and here’s her response on the bailout proposal:

If you do not wish to view the video, or prefer to read the transcript,³ here’s the response

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy? Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say, I like ever American I’m speaking with were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the tax payers looking to bailout.

But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Helping the — Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. Shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americas. A

And trade we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive scary thing. But 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. ALl those things under the umbrella of job creation.

This bailout is a part of that.

To watch/read that and come away with the sense that she has even a basic grasp of the situation requires a great deal of charity, if not self-delusion. And is she looking at noted during the response? if someone can translate that, or make a cogent argument that it is a legitimate response, I would love to read it.

Sarah Palin is a pefect embodiment of what I termed a long time ago the Deion Sanders Effect⁴: the idea that we will often support (even like) someone only because they are on our team. As I wrote at the time:

We too often treat politics like a spectator sport–everything is seen in terms of whether it helps our side move the ball forward or not. If our side says it, it is good; if the other side says it, it’s bad. Such thinking diverts us from genuine, efficacious public dialogue. We altogether seem too interested in making sure our side scores (or, at least, that the other side doesn’t) than we are in actually having a worthwhile discussion about what our national priorities should be, and what solutions are needed to address them.

I don’t expect Republicans to en masse vote for Obama because of Palin–for any number of reasons that would be an odd expectation to have. What I would like to see, however, is some intellectual honesty about her selection and her qualifications.

1. The main reason for another Palin post is that usually one such post leads to comments supporting Palin that I find baffling, leading to a need to even further explain myself. Plus, I am likely also responding to market forces, insofar as it is clear that I am getting more traffic from more Palin blogging. As such, I suppose I should ride the Palin Bubble as long as I can. Of course, once the Palin bubble bursts, and traffic plummets, I fully expect that the federal government will come bail me out by passing a law requiring low-level employees (I’d settle for that) to click on PoliBlog during their coffee breaks, so as to shore up my flagging traffic. [↩]
2. Yes, I also understand that there are third party options, and arguments to be made in regards to supporting them over the Big Two. I am not going to engage that debate at the moment, real thought it is. [↩]
3. Source: Think Progress [↩]
4. If the Deion ref is out of your experience, here’s my basic explanation:
   

   When Deion played for the Falcons he was an annoying, preening player–but he didn’t bother me all that much, because that Falcons didn’t matter to the Dallas Cowboys. When Deion signed with the 49ers, he became extremely annoying. Indeed, he was perhaps the most annoying football player ever. However, when he signed with Dallas, why, he sure did seem to calm down–not quite as arrogant as he used to be. When he was helping make Larry Brown into a Super Bowl MVP he was the salt of the earth, right ?(at least if one was a Dallas Cowboys fan). And the funny thing is that he got all annoying again when he signed with the Redskins.

   There days the appropriate analog would be Terrell Owens–who is a lot less annoying catching TD passes as a Cowboy than when he did the same thing for the 49ers and Eagles. [↩]