Punditry

It's fine with me if hard-core partisans cheerlead for Palin so long as they have some reasonable grasp of reality. There are plenty of soberminded conservatives talking her up to counter unfair distortions and offering useful, friendly advice. Jackson tries for it, but he strikes out hard. This article is not wholly devoid of merit, spelling-wise for instance, and it does cheerlead admirably, but it is a wooden read and also quite preposterous. As far as practical application it lacks even a single piece of decent and useful advice for Palin to follow on her quest to dig out, although it does say that she's in the ditch mainly because of her greatest benefactor's campaign. There are no real warnings to be heeded, no unforeseen pitfalls are illuminated for Palin in this piece.

It's fairly delusional to compare Palin to Reagan and Nixon and Clinton. Reagan had a record in a region of consequence before his "comeback", and Nixon had decades on the national scene even before the presidency. Clinton came back during an actual primary, in which he ran for the actual presidency with a gubernatorial record that Palin cannot match. His second comeback was due to popularity based on a presidential record in addition to an energetic post-presidential agenda, possibly coupled with a heavyweight Hillary who immediately entered the Senate upon his departure. Meanwhile, back in Alaska, Sarah quit her job, and then Todd quit his job. The Clintons may have been seen as troubled but everyone knows they mean business. And it is most definitely not an attack on Palin to say that whatever family difficulties she has, they must be addressed in a serious manner. Did the Clintons feud with the Lettermans of the world? Did Nixon and Reagan? Were they as amateurish as Palin? They were neither as amateurish nor quite as lacking in concrete experience with some serious politicking and concensus-building and the reading of newspapers.

Palin's hole to climb out of is rather deep given her stature. The brief record of taking on the old-boys is commendable, the determination and the charisma are undeniable, but what else did she actually do other than fire up the base while dropping everyone else's jaws to the floor? A year later she is still unqualified in the eyes of Independents, and half of Republicans agree with that notion. She has her work more than cut out for her, and so does Mr. Jackson if he wants to advise her in the Post.