Friend Quin, we are perhaps dealing with a mild case of
semantics here. I say “philosophy, character and good old-fashioned
common-sense judgment” and you say “the wisdom that comes from
experience.” I suspect the latter is nothing more than another way
of saying the former. One man’s wisdom that comes from experience
is another man’s common-sense judgment. Good judgment comes, as
they say, from having had bad judgment — aka experience,
experience from which you learn. And certainly I believe to
understand the conservative philosophy is to have “knowledge,”
something I would never denigrate. I think, though, that it is
vastly unfair to think that Governor Palin should be able to adjust
overnight to her newfound role. Quite demonstrably the roles in her
famous ascent in Alaska were always a gradual step up the ladder —
PTA to council member to Mayor to State Energy & Gas Commission
chair to Governor. Clearly in each instance she handled herself
very, very well. Today is October 1 — which means she has been in
this new role for exactly a month and a couple days. There is no
reason to think she will not adapt well — very well — as this
continues. Her convention performance was, as they say in show
business, boffo. An achievement that escaped Senator and former
Congressman Dan Quayle, who had 14 years in House and Senate but
whose debut as the VP nominee was, to put it mildly, memorable.
As it happens, I saw right after her selection an earlier,
extensive interview she had done well before she was picked with a
visiting Maria Bartiromo for CNBC. Maria was very good, very
thorough, and there was no air of “gotcha” since at that point
Palin was just the Governor of Alaska. Palin was very, very good.
She drilled in on energy issues (pardon the pun) in great detail
and with great confidence, discussing everything from ANWR to the
physical aspect of husband Todd’s job as a sloper — separating the
oil from water and gas as it is pumped out of the ground. The
subject was complex, the interview a full half-hour and done far
better than McCain, Obama and Biden could possibly hope on the same
subject.
The problem, I agree, is that the election is in 30-some odd
days and the VP debate is tomorrow night. I suspect if she is just
herself — and is not over-coached (a problem that beset President
Reagan in his first 1984 debate with Mondale — and he was already
president!), she will be just fine. It takes a while to get your
footing. But particularly at this point as she realizes the import
of the Gwen Ifill revelations and her treatment thus far by the
media she knows exactly that the game is on to make her a buffoon
and a lightweight. She surely has had this problem in Alaska — and
won the day. What, after all, do you think the Murkowski crowd —
he of the 22 years in the Senate and an incumbent governor — were
saying about her back then?
Last but not least, if I may say from a New Englander turned
Pennsylvanian to a Louisianan, I do think one of the more shameful
aspects of culture in the Northeast United States is this
up-in-the-air attitude about a good many people who are not from
the same turf or have some version of the proper school tie or size
of wallet or family history etc., etc. This used to be a
North-South thing, something I became aware of when my family lived
briefly in southern Virginia for a couple years and my high school
English teacher asked me bashfully if he taught as well as my
teachers in Massachusetts. I was stunned — the answer was very
much yes — but the mere asking of the question said volumes. Eyes
open as a teenager I began to see this kind of thing and understand
it a lot more afterwards whenever the topic of things Southern came
up with my Yankee friends. It made life a particular hell in the
White House for LBJ (“Uncle Cornpone” from Southwest Texas State
Teachers College), which inevitably led to his simultaneous
deriding of “the Harvards” while letting them plunge him into
Vietnam and, most dramatically, making them come into the bathroom
while he was on the john, taking great delight in their discomfort
and his ability to command them. Even Jimmy Carter would speak of
this kind of treatment. Alaska is becoming, in this campaign, the
New Old South. Filled with funny talking hicks who, per
Saturday Night Live, think incest is best. Joe Biden can
be a virtual gaffe machine and have made serious personal and
policy mistakes and, well, it’s all a yawn because Joe went to
Syracuse, comes from Delaware via Scranton and he’s, but of course,
a Democrat. Sounds elitist.
