It’s been almost a week since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) abruptly announced her resignation, and while most of the media was abuzz about this news for the following few days with analysis and commentaries, almost everyone agreed that nobody knows what she’s up to, as David Warren opines:
I doubt Palin has any specific plan, even a rough one, to run for president in 2012. That is still more than three years away, and she will still be quite young when it happens. She will most certainly try her luck as standard-bearer for the Republican anti-establishment, in the run up to the mid-term elections in 2010, and then take it from there.
One of the things that makes her an unusual politician, and also the opposite of Obama, is her sincere disbelief in plans and planning. She could be running for President in 2016, or even 2020, and will not be John McCain’s age until the presidential election of 2036.
Moreover, I don’t think anyone has a clearer view than Palin herself of her need for more breadth and national experience. Nor of the needs of her family, for that matter, given the taste she has received of what the media are eager to do to them (compared to the halo of protection they extend around, say, Obama’s young and impressionable children).
Yet the Left continues to write and talk about her nonstop, trying to figure her out, label her, pick her apart. There’s Wayne Francis of TPM trying to best David Letterman with a top ten list. Steve Chapman’s lack of originality again brings up Palin’s physical appearance:
But it’s really not hard to see why Palin inspires such devotion. And I do mean “see.” She has one obvious thing going for her that Miers didn’t: She’s a babe, and she doesn’t try to hide it.
As an article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair puts it, Palin “is by far the best-looking woman ever to rise to such heights in national politics.” And while that fact doesn’t earn her points with me, it obviously does with many other people.
It’s hard to exaggerate how valuable a pleasing appearance can be. Numerous studies show that people rated good-looking make more money than those who are not so easy on the eyes. In the modern media age, the same effect holds in politics.
Good looks are a big advantage to male politicians as well. No one would have given the time of day to John Edwards or Mitt Romney if they were short, paunchy and bald. When Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm ran for president in 1996, he said, “The real question is whether someone as ugly as I am can be elected.” He got his answer.
Really, Steve? This is worthy of print at this juncture in political time? What a waste of Internet bandwidth and countless electrons. Thanks for proving to readers everywhere that people like you on the Left are much more obsessed with Gov. Palin than “those loony conservatives.” I can’t wait to see what your thoughtful brain comes up with next.
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