If Nothing Else
- 10.08.2008 - 7:44 AMCamille Paglia on the Sarah Palin coverage:
The mountain of rubbish poured out about Palin over the past month would rival Everest. What a disgrace for our jabbering army of liberal journalists and commentators, too many of whom behaved like snippy jackasses. The bourgeois conventionalism and rank snobbery of these alleged humanitarians stank up the place. As for Palin’s brutally edited interviews with Charlie Gibson and that viper, Katie Couric, don’t we all know that the best bits ended up on the cutting-room floor? Something has gone seriously wrong with Democratic ideology, which seems to have become a candied set of holier-than-thou bromides attached like tutti-frutti to a quivering green Jell-O mold of adolescent sentimentality.
Watching the entire political class spin out of control, misjudge, misinterpret, and finally in essence give up their crusade against Palin has certainly been one of the highlights of the race. She is fun, in part, because she distains so much of what passes for political wisdom and because she can throw a punch with a twinkle in her eye. She is the happiest of warriors. And that is a lot of what politics is, or it should be, about: the sheer joy of performance and the fun of the battle to persuade ordinary people that your ideas matter.
Campaigns aren’t won by email battles between the camps or another round of dreary attack ads. They aren’t won by position papers. These things can be important, but not decisive. Elections are won by convincing voters (many apolitical or the “low information” voters that liberals scorn) to join your team. Watching someone do it with style and with gusto is a delight. And if her ticket doesn’t prevail we’d be silly to think that someone as good at it as she is and who obviously enjoys it as much won’t be back again.
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