The Palin Paradigm

Sarah Palin as compared to . . .

1. . . . Hillary Clinton. It's true there is "no comparison," as many angry Hillary supporters have been saying. But these people miss the point. It's not that HRC represents a more experienced or accomplished version of Palin, it's that they each represent a different style of (female) politician.

A friend once observed that professional women have only a limited number of archetypes on which to model their images if they want to be successful. In fact, I believe she claimed there were exactly three. One is to play the dumb sex-kitten. The second is to be harsh and humorless (rhymes with "witch"). The third is to be "one of the guys." I would argue that the image Hillary has adopted over the years falls mainly within the second category. In fact, this is pretty much the choice of a majority of female politicians of Hillary's generation: The need to be taken seriously is the paramount stylistic consideration. They come across as lawyerly (or businesslike) and serious. The Hollywood analogue would be Katherine Hepburn.

Palin appears to be the rare breed who falls into the "one of the guys" category. She's doesn't appear to be concerned about whether the male-dominated world will take her seriously. She's just who she is. In Hollywood terms, she's more of an Elaine Benes or Liz Lemon (sans neuroses) type.

(In case you're wondering, there are no "dumb sex-kittens" in American political life. You'd have to go to Italy to find that.)

2. . . . Ronald Reagan. There's something to that comparison, but let's not overdo it. Reagan and Palin share a value political trait: the ability to use humor and charm to repel an opponent's attacks. But Reagan had something else that made him formidable. Reagan had a set of ideas that would help define a major political movement. So far, at least, Palin embodies an approach to governance, but not a philosophy.

3. . . . Spiro Agnew. I bring this up only to make the point that Agnew was notoriously anti-elite-Washington media. Palin sounded the exact same theme last night in her acceptance speech. She said the media regards her as unqualified merely because she is not a part of the permanent Washington establishment. She may be right as far as that goes, but she needs to keep in mind that being outside the Washington establishment is also no automatic qualification for high office.

4. . . . Joe Biden. No contest. Palin makes "Lunchpail Joe" Biden look like stale meatloaf. Joe's bona fides as a regular blue-collar guy seem pathetically contrived as compared to this gun-toting lady and her snowmobiling husband. The good news is, Biden won't need to bring that lunchpail to the debate, because he's going to have his lunch handed to him.

5. . . . Barack Obama. It's an interesting juxtaposition. Obama is the former community organizer ostensibly running on behalf of the little guy. Sarah's naturalistic style and middle-class values, however, make Obama look haughty and pretentious by comparison. At some level, she seems to turn him into John Francois Kerry.