Palin As Obama? Heck No

The site Right Wing News has compiled some reactions from right-wing bloggers to Palin’s RNC speech last night. Naturally, they’re thrilled by it. But perhaps the most disturbing reaction that I can find comes from William Lobdell, who was a reporter for the L.A. Times for 14 years:

Palin has just hijacked the presidential campaign. I’ve got a skeptical, Obama-loving wife and some liberal sons, and they all think she killed it...Palin has managed to make Obama look insignificant, McCain appear heroic, and herself: a grassroots American who won’t back down from a fight.

…I wasn’t prepared to like her, and I don’t. I LOVE her.

Governor’s jet on E-Bay? Classic.

Do you hear that? It’s America falling in love with Sarah Palin.

So far, she’s killing it.

Why so disturbing? Because Lobdell was an actual reporter, not just a blogosphere wingnut. And he’s falling for Palin’s “I’m a tough mama, Obama’s a pussy, and that’s all you need to know” act, hook line and sinker.

So, apparently, is Chuck Todd over at MSNBC, who says that “Conservatives have found their Obama.” Oh, come on. Her speech was competent and decently delivered, but so what? I agree with Timothy Noah that there’s no way this speech wouldn’t go over-praised if it was delivered with even the merest hint of gusto (which it was).

Why? Because expectations were set so low for Palin. By the time her big night at the RNC came along, her image was almost a caricature of the backwards yokel, thanks to media frenzies over pregnant teenagers and kooky secessionist parties. All she had to do was remind people that she could string together a sentence without guffawing and she was golden. The fact that she did more than that has now blown people away: the AP called Palin’s speech “star-turning.”

Okay: I understand that Palin, like Obama in 2004, just delivered a well-received convention speech from a position of relative obscurity. So in that sense, an Obama/Palin comparison is fair. But only in that sense. Barack Obama’s speech–and his breakout onto the political scene–is important because it introduces a new narrative into politics. After years of increased polarization, Obama came out of nowhere and said “stop! this is madness.” Palin isn’t about changing the course of politics: her speech was just about making fun of Obama and showing that she’s not a hick. She did both quite well, but you really can’t compare Obama’s call for a paradigm shift with Palin’s efforts to sell herself as credible.

So don’t tell me that this one speech made Palin the “real deal.” Republicans always knock Obama for having nothing but speeches, for launching his career from one grand oration in 2004–and now Palin’s going to get away with the same thing? The knock on Obama has always been that good speeches do not equal good leadership. That maxim apparently doesn’t apply to Republicans.

And keep in mind one thing during the whole Palin-as-messiah craze: Barack Obama has already won a national primary; Sarah Palin was plucked from obscurity without in-put from voters. Comparing the two is like saying Obama’s ascent to Democratic nominee was meaningless, a thing not to be counted when assessing candidates’ readiness for the national stage. But that’s ridiculous.