The story behind Sarah Palin’s arrival on the national stage is seldom-discussed by mainstream pundits and analysts on either side of the American political divide, but it’s well-known to political academics and insiders. Bill Kristol was the earliest and most influential of Republican political intellectuals to support the idea that she was capable, if managed correctly, of contributing her unique form of populism to a well-organized defeat of an opponent whose intellectual strength could not be matched. Such was Karl Rove’s spectacular political success in delivering a two-term Republican president, and George W. Bush proved to be, with very few exceptions, quite the manageable guy.
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