Must Read Profile on Palin

The New Republic has released online the feature article from their new issue, a profile of Sarah Palin. It is impossible to read the thing and not come away scared about the prospect of Palin in the White House.

A few themes the profiles touches upon:

Her power drive is comparable to Cheney -- no surprise given her answer about the role of the VP in last week's debate -- but her intellect is of an order below Bush's. Consider this passage:

In 1996, Palin...demand to know why Stein, the mayor, had "raised the budget." Stein... tried to explain that he'd done nothing of the kind--that, when a city grows, businesses collect more in tax revenue, but that new residents also increase demand for public services. Palin wasn't appeased. She'd say things like, "'Oh, okay. Well, that's the way you think about it,'" Stein recalls. "I was thinking--these are things she should know better. Why is she asking me these stupid questions?"

Much of Palin's political history has been informed by a fierce opposition to intellect:

Palin.. may be the first conservative politician since Nixon to experience [class] resentment so authentically. For her, it's not so much a political tool as a motivating principle. A trip through Palin's past reveals that almost every step of her career can be understood as a reaction to elitist condescension--much of it in her own mind.

And much of her political gain has come on the shoulders of personal vendetta against whoever may have slighted her, be it real or imagined. Once elected Mayor she began a years-long offensive against Nike Carney, a Darmouth graduate and the man who introduced her to politics.

Palin took every opportunity to humiliate her former mentor. "She had people coming in, castigating me," Carney recalls. "Anything I proposed, even innocuous resolutions, went down to defeat." At city council meetings, Palin would sit and chitchat with allies at great length while Carney held his hand waiting to speak. Finally, toward the end of the meeting, Palin would turn and ask, "Oh, Nick, did you have something to say? Well, keep it brief."

In so many ways the Palin that emerges from this profile is of a politician who embodies the worst of devisive, ideological politics. She's not so much a Washington outsider as she is a Washington politician who happens to live in Alaska. She is Karl Rove's perfect child.

Sunday, October 5, 2008