The American Spectator

Quin: I think you give it away when you express disdain for the “cloyingness” of Palin’s “nasal” and “long drawn out” pronuciations — you simply don’t like her accent. I never thought I’d see “accentism” become a major problem in our culture.

But as it happens, it’s the alluring way she puts her words together that is part of her irresistible charm. And at least unlike the buffoonish Biden, she didn’t start referring to herself in the third person. Her words on paper aren’t as damning as you might think. What matters is how they sound when she delivers them. That’s a whole different thing. I’ve seen the text of many political speeches that on paper appear duller than a molasses race. Yet uttered by the right pol they take on a life of their own.

Mass conservative delusion? That’s a terribly cheap shot. What’s wrong with voters actually liking a candidate, as opposed to spewing disgust with him or promising to sit the election out or spending the rest of their natural lives worshipping at the shrine of Ronald Reagan? Without life, politics is dead. Palin is very much about life. Her conservatism is scattershot, to put it mildly, but the fact remains she’s an irresistibly attractive political talent and the only game in town. You’d prefer Mike Huckabee?