The Palin Impact

I've been out of town since Sunday, which usually means that...

...I don't have the time to devote to blogging all that much
...I get to real the Wall Street Journal and USA Today most days

...the second item above is a result of the complimentary copy that the hotel I stay at in Hartford (Homewood Suites, highly recommended by the way) provides.

Anyway, one of the items that I noted as having received a lot of coverage was the fact that I think Sarah "the drive-by media asks trick questions, like 'what magazines do you read'?" Palin was 3 for 4 in recent PRIMARY elections. In the grand scheme of things I think this means pretty much nothing.

Why? Well pretty simple actually: in primaries, candidates almost always have to go either hard right or hard left. Those going hard right of course are going to include Palin favorites. She is influential, but only within that crowd. In a general election, a candidate has to appeal to voters in the center and on the left in order to win. That's where Governor "I Quit" will not nearly be so influential. Yes, raise the name "Sarah Palin" at your average Klan rally or Tea Party event and I am sure that most attendees will join you in saluting the woman who not only can see Russia from her house, but who also thinks that shooting animals from a helicopter is somehow a sport. Mention her name to an average voter and the reaction is likely to be more along the lines of a yawn or even a response that involves the word "nit-wit" used repeatedly. Palin in an anchor, but only in a hard right port.

What's my beef with Trig's mom anyway? She represents one of the things in politics I despise the most: The politics of the soundbyte. As I've noted time and time again, I find it despicable when politicians take complex issues, such as energy policy, and dumb them down into meaningless phrases like "drill baby drill". To be fair, this is done on the left as well, but such noted luminaries as the Reverend Jesse Jackson (is is also mostly worthless in my book). Anyway, if you are told that our entire energy policy can be solved by "drill baby drill", then you are being nothing more than a sucker. Some things are complex. Some issues require study. Some problems can't be solved via the skillful application of a catch-phrase.

Look for the half-term governor's influence to be far less influential in the fall general elections.