It’s so exciting. Colin Powell has made another hasty decision.
He likes to be rolled over. Or self-rolled. A profile in courage
and all the rest. And it has nothing to do with race — human,
presidential, or otherwise. Rather, it’s all those board
memberships that threaten to go the way of the insider economy.
And he’s a man of deep conscience and unrivaled integrity. Just
don’t try any pro-life stuff on him. He thinks he and Obama
deserve each other. You’ll hear no argument here.
Among the good general’s other honorable excuses is that the
Republican Party, at whose conventions he has deigned to speak on
several historic occasions — provided no conservatives were in
the building when he did so and all photographs of Ronald Reagan
and Barry Goldwater were removed from the walls ahead of time —
has become too right-wing. And then there’s that woman Palin.
Like a true officer and gentleman, he patronized her, saying
she’s “very distinguished” and “someone to be admired” — try
saying that about Joe Biden without doubling over in giddy
laughter — yet sniffed she’s just not ready to be vice president
let along president. I’d say she’s no less ready than Powell is,
and don’t take our word for it. We’re relying on Bill Kristol’s
assessment, and he’s someone who in his time has endorsed both
Powell and Palin.
Besides, who would you rather see on Saturday Night
Live? Palin this past Saturday was a revelation. Simply
stunning. So much so that every SNL regular stayed off
drugs and couldn’t have been nicer or more humble. So good was
she she induced Alec Baldwin to turn in a civilized performance.
So much for her lack of diplomatic skills. In the normal scheme
of things, Alec makes Vladimir Putin seem like a teddy bear.
Heck, even Rasputin. Yet Sarah didn’t even have to use a taser on
him.
If John McCain wants to win, he lets Palin do a nightly show
every day from today to November 4. She has already won, and if
worse comes to worst she can have Katie Couric’s job.
It is interesting that the meanest anti-Palinites have been
women, and we’re not speaking of the left. Peggy Noonan comes to
mind, She disliked Palin at first sight. But she never liked
Nancy Reagan either. (In that case she felt inferior.) Kathleen
Parker soon followed, and made her name as a result. Whatever her
motives, we don’t think she has the experience to comment on
matters of high politics. But now it’s turned out she has
connections. One of them is her hero, Christopher Buckley.
They have emerged
as the smart set conscience of the conservative movement, the
Republican Party, and the East Coast’s provincials. But after one
look at Palin, the question answers itself: Who be they?
There are grungier Palin dismissers. Christopher Hitchens comes
to mind. He calls
her a “national disgrace.” Typically, though, he shies from
confronting her directly and instead heaps all blame and abuse on
McCain for noticing her in the first place. He agrees with Mr.
Obama that McCain is becoming “erratic,” though he considers that
term a “euphemism” for an increasingly growing and embarrassing
“cognitive” deficit on McCain’s part. Not bad for someone who’s
never written a sentence in a sober cognitive state.
A different sort of blackguard is the sculpture-jawed Josh
Brolin, the boy actor who is playing George W. Bush in Oliver
Stone’s latest movie cartoon. Young Brolin hosted Saturday
Night Live the other night, yet made sure to avoid any
contact with Sarah Palin. It’s not so much he was afraid of her
as terrified of what his stepmother might do if he did meet her.
Better to be an Enemy of the Week than in Barbra Streisand’s bad
graces, evidently.
