It was a fascinating conversation – at least to me – and I was at the time the odd man out. You’ll see what I mean by ‘at the time’ in a moment.
We were having a wide-ranging political conversation over dinner, and one of the lobbyists posed this question: “Sarah Palin: is she a viable future candidate for national office, or is she done?” I sat silently as, one by one, the five political pros at the table knee-jerked to the “she’s done” posture.
The reasons thrown out for their dismissive posture towards Gov. Palin were predictable: “Too ditzy”, “doesn’t speak well”, “inexperienced”, “knows nothing about foreign policy”, “shouldn’t have resigned her job as governor”, and perhaps most fascinating of all, “doesn’t fit in around here”. This came from the lone female at the table, a lovely woman who grew up in New York state, educated in private schools and Yale, and who worked her entire life in one government job or another before becoming a lobbyist a few years back. Despite that background, she still possesses some modicum of common sense, although she displays all the lack of understanding of middle America you’d expect from a person of her background.
