SARAH - PUBLISHED - AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  You know that this is Sarah Palin's week by the sounds of knives being sharpened.  As one commentator said, for someone who's dismissed as ditzy, dumb and irrelevant, her enemies certainly sound panicked. 

MSNBC actually used fake pictures of her...and later apologized.  Newsweek borrowed a photo of her from a running magazine, the better to make her look like an outdoorsy hick, not someone you'd want to take seriously in a conflict with Iran.  Sneering reviews of her book, "Going Rogue," are appearing in the usual places.  Women reporters in particular seem to compete with each other to put her down.

It hasn't dawned on some of these characters that she was an elected sitting governor, and a respected one.

Rich Lowry comes to Sarah's defense, and it's a spirited defense:

It’s September 2008 all over again. All the same players are lining up to put a good hate on Sarah Palin. She’s like an isotope designed to course throughout our politics and culture, lighting up press bias, self-congratulatory liberalism, Christianity-hating secularism, and intellectual condescension wherever they are found.

The contempt of her enemies only increases the ardor of her fans. Palin is the most divisive woman in America, supplanting a Hillary Clinton who is losing her electric political charge as Barack Obama’s mostly irrelevant secretary of state.

And...

Palin has lived to tell the tale because going rogue is now her operating principle. Her base of support is so intense, she doesn’t need supply lines into the political or media establishment. She transformed her Facebook page into a must-read organ of conservative opinion by lobbing “I can’t believe she said that” rhetorical bombshells. No political consultant would ever approve of her M.O.; for Palin’s purposes, no political consultant could possibly improve on it.

And...

She represents less a philosophical strain on the right than an affect and a demographic. What makes her otherwise orthodox conservatism different is the plain-spoken, combative way she expresses it and the constituency she attracts. Her supporters identify with her populist, unaffected vibe and tend to be disaffected with politics as usual — they’re Palin Perotistas. A drastic image makeover would only drive them away.

Republicans need these voters more than ever given the roiling grassroots revolt against Obama’s governance. Without them, they can’t get a majority; they’d be doomed if they were ever to slide into a splinter party. If Palin is their voice and channels their energy productively, she’s part of the Republican answer to Obama, no matter what presidential politics ultimately holds for her. There’s an upside to rogue.

COMMENT:  As readers know, I've had mixed feelings about Sarah.  On the one hand, she has terrific qualities, and she's an original, a political Annie Oakley.  On the other hand, I've been critical of lack of preparation on major issues.  That is something that must change.  The American people will expect it of her.

In an interview with Barbara Walters, Sarah said she wanted to play a major role in American politics, if people will have her.  Well, some never will.  She went to the wrong schools.  She married the wrong man.  She gave her kids the wrong names.  But saner types will have her...if she appears ready, and does her homework.

It's really her choice.

November 17, 2009