SHE DISHES IT OUT; CAN SHE TAKE IT IN RETURN?
THE CHERRY on top of Wednesday's Sarah Palin speech - and the frenzy of interest over her candidancy - came the morning after, in the form of a celebrity- news item: Jamie Lynn Spears reached out to potential First Baby Mama Bristol Palin and sent her a gift from a Hollywood store.
The item was later denied by the Spears camp, but the story helps crystallize a few underlying strains in the country's fascination with Palin and her family, a fascination fueled rather than dampened by her convention appearance.
The applied veneer of celebrity culture over presidential politics shouldn't be a surprise, but it is a disappointment, given how much is at stake in November. Palin might represent a fresh face that could bring positive change in Washington, but we suspect she's just the latest novelty in the Longest Presidential Race in History.
From the time John McCain's choice was announced, Palin's story - Troopergate, Juno in Juneau, a husband who wants Alaska to secede from the union, her experience being mayor of a town of under 10,000 - has become a distraction from the serious issues this election should be about. It may give us plenty to talk about, but they are the wrong things to be talking about. Was that the Republicans' intent?
We must admit, it was refreshing to hear a Republican acknowledge the messiness of families. "From the inside," Palin said, "no family ever seems typical." She deftly and affectionately introduced her family, calling her husband "quite a package." Though she and her husband say they are proud of Bristol's choice, they didn't acknowledge the irony that if Palin could, she would eliminate that choice from her daughter and every other daughter in the country.
We are impatient with the complaints from Palin and other Republicans that the liberal media - they say it like it's a bad thing! - are smearing her and attacking her family, which should be off-limits.
Republicans: If you define your candidate as a hockey mom, her family isn't off-limits.
The Republicans' obsession with the "executive experience" that Palin is able to offer is maybe because that's all she does offer. But there is no template for what executive decision-making involves: We asked people who should know and got as many answers as people we questioned. One of those was Don Kettl, the recent head of University of Pennsylvania Fels School of Government, who says, "We know it when we see it." Surely being in charge of a large organization qualifies, he says, but it doesn't necessarily show the capacity to handle the White House.
And keep in mind: The entire population of the state of Alaska would fill only half our city. Knowing how to get things done in Alaska doesn't give you instant knowledge of how things get done in Washington.
Whatever the case, we also know this: Quite a few other presidents couldn't boast of executive experience, either. Thomas Jefferson was one. So was Abraham Lincoln.
The red meat Palin threw to the hungry crowds at the Republican convention showed how hungry they were. But John McCain needs to deliver meat and potatoes, and be clear about how exactly he intends to solve the real problems facing our country. The country can't afford to be distracted by novelty much longer.
published Fri., Sept. 2, 2008
The Daily Views Editorial Page (A17)
Philadelphia Daily News