SOLID ADVICE FOR SARAH - AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  Sarah Palin is one of the stars of the Republican Party.  She can bring out the base, raise the cash, and draw a vastly larger crowd any day than can Joe Biden.  But many of us who like Sarah also realize that she's deeply flawed, and must cure those flaws if she is to have a serious future.  Jonah Goldberg, writing in Townhall.com, gives Governor Palin some very good advice.  I hope she takes it: 

Dear Governor Palin,

You're blowing it...

...There's a reason why the left and much of the media establishment hated you from day one. Some hated you out of the fear that you might stop Barack Obama's unfolding coronation. Others because you seemed to expose the snobbery, arrogance and ideological pieties of elite feminism.

As Ed McMahon used to say to Johnny, "That is correct, sir."

But Goldberg points out that things have changed.  Now Palin is striking fear, not in the hearts of Democrats, but Republicans, because of things she does:

You do seem to think the best advice is for you to stay just the way you are. Leaders listen to the advice they don't necessarily want to hear.

For starters, every time I see you on TV, you're whining about unfair press coverage. Don't get me wrong: Much of it is unfair, and some of it deserves a response. But it's not presidential. It's not even gubernatorial. You are constantly taking the bait, taking up the fights your biggest fans want you to take up.

But here's the thing: Don't listen to your biggest fans. Don't alienate them either, but don't think that because the Palin4Pres crowd cheers, you're making progress. Politics is ultimately about persuasion, and you seem entirely uninterested in that, preferring instead to play the victim. Well, victims don't get elected president. Ronald Reagan was a laughingstock for liberals and despised by the press. But he didn't whine or take the bait.

Hmm.  I'm afraid Goldberg is right, and I'm a Sarah fan.

Second, peddling a few platitudes and truisms about free markets and limited government is no substitute for really knowing what you're talking about...

...President Bush had the same problem you do, which is why there's a hunger for Republicans who can effectively articulate and sell our policies and philosophy.

Ouch.  But Sarah, this is good thinking.

Here's the good news: You have time. Here's the better news: You have something no one else in the party has -- charisma. And I don't mean you have the most charisma like it's a consolation prize for not being elected prom queen. If money could buy what you have, Romney would have bought it all by now. Good politicians can learn how to win over audiences, but the great ones are born with the ability. Reagan had it. Clinton had it. Obama has it. You have it. You are the "It Girl" of the GOP.

And...

So here's my advice. Stay home and do your job and your homework. You'll still be a national figure come the primaries. But if you can't surprise your detractors with your grasp of policy when you re-emerge on the national stage, you won't win the nomination. More important, you won't deserve to.

COMMENT:  I'm glad Jonah wrote that column.  Sarah needs the advice.  It's easy to be swayed by cheering crowds, but if those crowds don't add up to 50% plus one, all is lost.  There is no prize in politics for second place.

There's literally an army in the GOP willing to go up to Alaska to help Sarah, to brief her, to get her ready.  But she has to be willing.  So far I've been disappointed in how little she's grown since last year's campaign.  She can do better, and must.

July 3, 2009