It's contrariness time. Despite Sarah Palin's recent poll numbers, she should avoid selling books and being snarky — which she clearly has been — and instead be perky and enthusiastic, which she clearly is.
The last Republican presidential candidate who Democratic liberal-intellectuals and issue-oriented political activists made fun of (I am referring to myself too) was: a former governor with celebrity star power; who was good looking, charming, had sex appeal and a great smile; who needed note cards with block letters (not notes on the palm of his hand) to answer questions ["Ha, ha," my friends and I would say, "weren't those note cards funny? — what a dummy!"]; was a right-winger way out of the mainstream who made up facts (Remember the "welfare queen" who it turned out didn't exist?); and no one thought could ever, ever, ever possibly be elected president, was — [We all knew that. Indeed, we were so certain of that we hoped he'd be the Republican nominee in 1980, remember?]:
Ok, I know you all know the punch line. The person I am referring to is Ronald Reagan, elected twice in a row by substantial historically large landslides.
Fellow Democrats, liberals, activists, and pathetic political junkies like me: Wake up!
Read the Sunday Washington Post Outlook article, from Sunday, Feb. 7, entitled: "Why Are Liberals So Condescending?" and try to answer the question honestly (if that is possible) when it comes to judging Sarah Palin.
And then remember how wrong we all were about Ronald Reagan and try to be humble, if that's possible.
Mr. Davis, a Washington D.C. attorney, writes a weekly column each Thursday for The Hill newspaper called "Purple Nation." He is a former Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1996-98 and a member of President Bush's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006-07. He is the author of "Scandal: How 'Gotcha' Politics Is Destroying America" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
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