Halperinitus has broken out at the Politico:
Fishing permit violations. A blue-collar husband who racked up a DUI citation as a 22-year-old. An unmarried teenage daughter who is pregnant and a nasty child custody battle involving a family member.
All of this, to one degree or another, has surfaced in recent days as a result of efforts to discredit or undermine Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But these revelations may have the opposite effect: In one sense, they could reinforce how remarkably unremarkable she is.
You see, all these revelations make the Palins a Lifetime movie. The criteria for this election is no longer whether you want to have a beer with a political candidate, but rather do you want their personal lives as chaotic as your own. The more their lives resemble characters portrayed by Denise Richards or Susan Lucci, the more America wants to vote for them.
"No drama" is out. Jerry Springer is in. (Unless, of course, this was happening to African-Americans. Then it's shameful and unpatriotic and un-American.)
Of course, this overlooks stuff like foreign policy experience or balancing a budget that's not awash in oil money or experience up until 18 months ago that came from running a town with less than 9,000 citizens. To raise such concerns are just plain sexist. Hell, having your state a sea apart from Russia gives you plenty of foreign policy experience and PTA meetings gives you better experience than running a national campaign and earning 18 million votes.
So far — and it is hard to tell what the future may hold for Palin’s unexpected national candidacy — the travails of the Palin family probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans. It is this averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate for John McCain — and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats. Many voters will find it easy to identify with her family’s struggles — a significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so unusually and intensely personal.
The fewer qualifications a candidate has, the more American people can see themselves and want to vote for that candidate. Isn't that clear? Don't we all of feel it's plain unjust that we haven't been selected to run the State or Justice Department? Who do these uppity, accomplished candidates think they are to assume these offices? How presumptuous!
Unlike running mates from both parties, dating back decades, the Palin family isn't part of the moneyed elite or the governing class. Neither wife nor husband is the scion of a well-connected family. Sarah Palin attended a state school, and her brushes with the law are of the same nettlesome kind that drive recreational fishermen crazy in all 50 states.
"Look at the nature of this: small-town mayor, marrying the high school sweetheart — these are the kinds of things you’d see in a Budweiser commercial as opposed to an Amstel Light commercial," said South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. "She wasn’t born of political pedigree, and people like that."
That's right, unlike the elite lineage of the Obamas and Bidens, the Palins are the salt of the earth, like the McCains and the Bushs. Isn't it about time we have a small town mayor be a heartbeat away from the Presidency? That's the kind of experience John McCain has been pointing out that Barack Obama's sorely lacks. You latte-sipping liberals will soon seen the wisdom of McCain's carefully vetted, ingenious choice of a running mate soon enough. Otherwise, you're just blinded by your own snobbery.