Frank Rich looks at Sarah Palin's populism and sees a threat he believes the Obama administration isn't taking seriously. Palin suffers from "pants on fire" just about every time she speaks. But Republicans know how to turn her lies and goofs to good use.
That Republican leaders can pass off deceptive faux-populism as “pitch-perfect populism” is in part a testament to the blinding intensity of the economic anger and anxiety roiling the country. It also shows the power of an incessant bumper-sticker fiction to take root when ineffectually challenged — and, most crucially, the inability of Democrats to make a persuasive case that they offer anything better.
The Obama White House remains its own worst enemy. No sooner did Palin’s Tea Party speech end than we learned of the president’s tone-deaf interview expressing admiration for “very savvy businessmen” like Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. With that single remark, Obama ingeniously identified himself with the most despised aspects of both Washington and Wall Street — the bailout and the bonuses. He still doesn’t understand that to most Americans, Blankfein is a savvy businessman only in the outrageous sense that he managed to grab his bonus some 17 months after the taxpayers had the good grace to save him from going out of business altogether.
Obama's ties to Wall Street have made even his most fervent admirers nervous. More than that, the left is -- or should be -- deeply worried about the Republican's continuing ability to build support from a series of lies covering up that party's ongoing love affairs with corporate America.
But there are few serious challenges to the opposition's statements, if any. Pundits on the left focus all attention on the palm of Sarah Palin's left hand.
Her only concrete program for dealing with America’s pressing problems came in the question-and-answer session. “It would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country,” she said, “so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again.” That pretty much sums up her party’s economic program, at least: divine intervention will achieve what government intervention cannot. That the G.O.P. may actually be winning this argument is less an indictment of Palin than of Washington Democrats too busy reading the writing on her hand to see or respond to the ominous political writing on the wall.
The Washington Post questions Sarah Palin's ability to cross over from being a media star to being a serious political candidate. In case we hadn't noticed, Palin's credibility -- her competence -- gets bad ratings from potential voters. She is a media star, something which tends to make her look more formidable than she is.
If Palin harbors presidential ambitions, she has a huge mountain to climb. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 71 percent of Americans do not think the politician who was Sen. John McCain's running mate in 2008 is qualified to be president.
Those numbers are so daunting that some Republicans who otherwise admire what she has accomplished doubt that she will run in 2012. Others say that unless she can transform attitudes dramatically, she cannot hope to win a general election. Still, GOP strategist Phil Musser said, "if she ran for president today, she would be the Republican nominee."
And then what? What happens to a Republican candidate who draws huge crowds but who ends up with about one quarter of the country believing she has the competence to be president? So far, not much good.
A recent Gallup poll showed a wide-open race for the Republican nomination in 2012. Asked to name their preferred candidate, 14 percent of Republicans named Romney; 11 percent said Palin. But 42 percent offered no opinion, and the rest were scattered among a slew of other candidates.
