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I know Sarah Palin, or at least Sarah Heath.
Of course I don't know her personally, but I know her. And please note I am not talking about her gender per se, but in the interest of being honest and describing my own experience, I can't avoid that.
I watched all of her speech and I'm glad I did. I know this woman. I am almost her exact contemporary (she is one year older than me).
I went to school with women just like her -- the whole deal, the Republicanism, the beauty pageant (one woman I'm thinking of actually went to the Barbizon School of Modeling), the almost militant pro-life stance steeped in Catholicism (Palin was baptized a Catholic, but her parents converted to the local church).
She has a chip on her shoulder, perhaps no bigger than mine, but essentially, she sets herself against the world and is constantly reminded that she's right. She believes, with some justification, that she is surrounded by liberals on campus. As a non-baby boomer (a GenX-er), the media, with its almost exclusively baby boomer view of the world, have been her enemy since she started reading the paper.
She finds you quickly, this type, because you're willing to talk (in other words, argue) politics with her when her friends (and yours) run away (and, in my case at least, I wasn't exactly fighting off other girls), so you basically come to a truce of sorts. But it's an uneasy truce, because you don't agree on ANYTHING. She tends to declare victory if you cede a single aspect of a single issue. "Sure, I wish there were fewer abortions, but I think more birth control--" "See! You agree with me!" The issue is not a matter of respect, as it's being portrayed -- I respect her as much as I respect any young politician. But I don't agree with her on anything.
Is she smart? Of course she's smart, but that's not news. It's college, everybody's smart (though your friends think she's an idiot, and they think you're an idiot or worse for putting up with her).
At 44, with her resume, is she ready to be vice president? Well, how has she conducted herself in office? I don't like what I've read. As a chief executive, is she an innovator, or one of Newt's 1994 revolutionaries, contemptuous of the very machinery of government and ready to turn on those who brought her there? (Newt told Jon Stewart he pushed for her, so it's his fault I thought of that, and one thing I noticed last night was how frequently Ted Stevens was thrown under the bus.) Wasn't that Bush's problem? Outsource everything, respect the military but nothing else? Throw aside your own legacy?
She didn't even touch the issues in her speech. She didn't have to -- everybody recognized her.
I know I'm generalizing, but this is politics. There are only so many paths people can take. Sarah Heath found her path, and look where it led her. Politically, she's a wedge, a throwback to 1990s politics, a Clarence Thomas if you will. We can make all sorts of cynical assumptions about the choice, and we're right, on that level.
But socially, she is different. This is a major change for the GOP -- and it is a step forward, of sorts. If she becomes vice president, and then president, well, the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.
And what does one learn about their earliest political opponents? Never underestimate them, but try not to take them too seriously.
Unless, of course, they actually become vice president.
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