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July 01, 2009

The Pretender from Wasilla

Various conservative pundits are lining up to take shots at a Vanity Fair article about Sarah Palin. I'll let you read the article and draw your own conclusions. But one criticism stood out to me.

In an email to a Washington Post blogger, McCain staffer David Welch wrote: "Purdum did not include quotes from pro-Palin staffers (Mike Goldfarb, Randy Scheunemann have been outspoken in their support) — a clear sign of biased hit piece. If that doesn't convince you, the countless cheap shots and comparison of Palin to Nixon should."

That's a fair point. She doesn't possess a fraction of the intelligence, experience or sheer political savvy that Richard Nixon did, and any comparisons between the two are inherently absurd for those reasons alone.

Whereas President Nixon traveled to China at significant political risk and managed to engage the reclusive and pathologically introspective Chinese in a way that nobody from the West had ever managed before him, Sarah Palin would have visited Taiwan and declared that since she could see China from there that therefore she was henceforth some sort of an expert on China.

David Welch couldn't be more right. Sarah Palin is no Richard Nixon. It would take a great deal more than simply sharing his supremely self-righteous arrogance to fill his shoes.

Posted by Kevin at July 1, 2009 08:02 AM