Last night I sat with my wife and two younger sons and watched Sarah Palin's speech. I generally avoid watching the conventions but like so many was curious about seeing how Sarah Palin would introduce herself to the American people. I did not expect to watch the whole speech but by midway through all of us were impressed and by the end the consensus was that she had hit a home run. This morning, perusing the news sites and the blogs it is clear that my family's reaction was near universal. Even the attempts at criticism from the Democratic side of the partisan divide unintentionally reinforced how remarkable her performance was. The Obama campaign's rather limp attack on the speech further confirmed that America has a new political star. There is certainly plenty of time for Sarah Palin to fall flat, though I would be surprised if she does not acquit herself well in the debate and on the campaign trail, but for now there is little question that she is a genuine phenomenon and represents a real and future threat to the Democratic party.
I will leave it others to discuss the theatrics and performance of Sarah Palin; suffice to say that Barack Obama has met his rhetorical equal. A number of bloggers have already done excellent work in collecting links and discussing the early reactions to the speech. I would especially suggest reading Glenn Reynold's collection from last night and his posts from this morning and note these comments from the Anchoress, who nailed it:
First remarks from the Obama team is weak - very weak - “Her speech was written for her.” Wow. THAT has never been true of any politician before! I think the Obama camp must be worried, so they’re doing what Democrats always do when they’re worried, they’re going after George W. Bush (Hypothetically)
Full Text of Speech here She hit a home run; she’s a star. The family on stage - incredible images. Pregnant daughter holding hands with her fiance. Piper talking to McCain, Sarah kissing Trig. You can’t beat that. Trouble. Sarah Palin is as good with a speech as Bill Clinton. Trouble. She’s not going home.
Further, both campaigns will attempt to "define" her persona in terms most advantageous to their interests over the next two months; the MSM will do their part to distort, both negatively and positively, the person of Sarah Palin. But beyond such ephemera, I suspect there is a potentially new embodied archetype in Sarah Palin and that deserves some discussion.
As I reflected on the speech I began to wonder about the deeper impact of Sarah Palin and why I am convinced from this single speech that she represents a new force in our politics. It occurred to me to wonder about who she represents, what mythic persona Sarah Palin embodies and to contrast this with what myth Barack Obama embodies; it is likely that from such myths a future President or two will emerge.
Barack Obama is easy to limn.
He began his campaign as the reincarnation of John F. Kennedy, or rather with the conscious goal of reprising the mythopoesis of JFK. Where Obama has failed is in misunderstanding the myth of JFK. He was depicted as a rugged, hyper-masculine warrior and thinker. Through the gauze of time, many on the left who have adopted JFK has only seen the glamor of Camelot and missed the warrior of PT-109. Perhaps if JFK were running in the current environment, where authenticity is so prized and phoniness so easily identified, the results would have been more similar to John Kerry, who attempted to become the warrior intellectual but failed because he couldn't carry the role, but in 1960, JFK could be both noble, martial, and intellectual, despite a reality far more tawdry and troubling. Barack Obama is not JFK because a metrosexual intellectual ca no longer pretend to be a warrior and Obama is left merely being an intellectual.
Time will tell if it is possible in 2008 that Adlai Stevenson can defeat Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a new American archetype; two women come to mind and there is an interesting connection between them.
Roger Simon thinks that Sarah Palin is Mrs. Smith:
Palin: Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington
... I couldn’t resist putting in my two cents on Sarah Palin’s performance tonight, since I saw it live. In all my years writing movies, going to drama school, etc., I have almost never seen anything so dramatic. It was the rebirth of Frank Capra for our times - Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington. This woman is a star and a star of the American kind we have not seen for years. She really is born live from a Capra movie, from the days Hollywood told stories about the greatness of our country. I don’t agree with her about with her about everything but so what? I don’t agree with anybody about everything except, luckily for me, my wife. But Sarah Palin is a force of nature. Like a Jimmy Stewart character channeled by Claudette Colbert.
I am convinced that Sarah Palin is much more than merely a female version of Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith. My thoughts wandered to the movie 300 and Queen Gorgo, who responded to attacks on her right to speak her mind in the company of men with a classic retort:
Messenger: What makes this woman think she can speak among men?
Queen Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to real men.
Queen Gorgo wins our hearts because she is a warrior Queen who is also beautiful and intelligent. We have no doubt that were Leonidas to need her to wield a sword, she would wield it effectively. Further, as she notes, Spartan boys become Spartan men and only Spartan women can create them. Does anyone doubt that Sarah Palin has given birth to real men, and should we require it, is there any doubt Sarah Palin could engender a new generation of American "real men" in contrast to the rather effete Barack Obama? Obama shrinks in comparison to his militant spouse, who appears able to give birth to angry women but offers little evidence that she could birth non-emasculated boys.
However, America is hardly Sparta which led me to further reflect on Sarah Palin and Queen Gorgo. The Queen is played in the movie by the exquisite British actress, Lena Headey, who is also currently starring in a leading role in a Television series about another warrior woman raising a warrior son: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. Despite her British origins (perhaps an apt expression of Britain's historical role as the mother of America), Lena Headey embodies competence, moral certainty, and elements of the very longstanding American tradition of pragmatism and ingenuity. Sarah Connor is underestimated because of her gender, but can use the great equalizer to establish a level playing field with any men (or robots) foolish enough to stand in the way of her and her son.
Barack Obama is still the favorite to win the election in November. The country is tired of the Republicans, tired of being disliked around the world, tired of being criticized at home and abroad for every mistake and imperfection, tired of the partisan vitriol which is a nightly staple of the news, and worried about the economy (not nearly as bad as the MSM would suppose but suffused with uncertainty which affects us all.) Further, on many issues the Democrats seem to be more in tune with the nation"s zeitgeist than the Republicans. In such a setting, all indicators point toward a Democratic victory in November. Yet, among the jokes about Sarah Palin making the e-mail rounds, there is one that very much captures the sense that she is implacable and indomitable and offers us the possibility of a quintessentially American mythological woman who can move us (restore us?) to great heights:
Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity's war against the machines.
This is what frightens the Democrats: even if they vanquish John McCain, they fear that Sarah Palin owns the future.
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