The Economist on Sarah Palin's book:
On policy, Mrs Palin’s book is negligible. Her call for “commonsense
conservatism” is a string of clichés. She favours free markets and a
robust defence, but other than that she offers few specifics about how
she would grapple with the big problems America actually faces. She
sometimes says things that make no sense: whatever its flaws,
cap-and-trade is not a Ponzi scheme.
But it really doesn't matter. In The New Yorker, Sam Tanenhaus puts her in context:
Polls taken last November showed that she had alienated centrists, and
a majority of people still eye her with mistrust. But this is beside
the point. Populists, from William Jennings Bryan and Huey Long through
Joseph McCarthy and George Wallace, have always been divisive and
polarizing. Their job is not to win national elections but to carry the
torch and inspire the faithful, and this Palin seems poised to do. That
she is the first woman to generate populist fervor on such a scale
enhances her appeal—and makes her, potentially, a figure of historic
consequence.”
And Steve Brodner chips in with a drawing of the leading so-called conservative today:
Funny how Palin looks almost like a string of cliches in the drawing — but rampages on, heedless and adored. The fascination continues. Her book has now sold over a million copies in two weeks.
Kit Stolz 