Mr. Burns: And a stunt like that impresses people?
Homer: Oh yeah, and I'm not easily impressed. Wow! A blue car!
-The Simpsons, "Monty Can't Buy Me Love"*
Normally, when a Republican shows up at a major political event and has to have things like "tax cuts" and "lift American spirits" scribbled on her palm to remember them, that's not what most people consider a "win." If that Republican were someone like Olympia Snowe, the crib notes would be taken as a sign that she didn't understand conservative ideals, and was really only spouting meaningless talking points in a transparent effort to curry favor by paying lip service to the wishes of a constituency she doesn't think much of. It's hard to argue, in other words, that there's nothing probative about needing to write "lift American spirits" on your hand.
Yet the bounds of reality don't much apply to the editorial board of a newspaper that's been dead for over a year. The New York Sun editorial board manage to avoid mentioning Palin's palm gaffe; even better, they somehow manage to convince themselves that, somewhere in the massive manure pile, they'd found a pony.
The significance of Governor Palin’s speech at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville lies in the new facets it discloses of the emerging doctrine we call Palinism. ... For all the eagerness of her critics to set her down as a lightweight, the early signs were of a view that is plenty sophisticated and full of savvy.
...
In sum, Palinism is starting to emerge as a worldview that includes a comprehension of the nature of the war, a respect for the sovereignty of democracies, an understanding of the relationship between high taxes and high unemployment and low taxes and low unemployment, an appreciation for sound money and a strong dollar, and a tendency toward constitutionalism. We’re a long way from endorsing a candidate for the next presidential election, but if this is what is emerging from a woman so many like to set down as a lightweight, it’ll be something to see what basic ideas emerge from her competitors.
It's scary enough that these fools would play around with a loaded gun by dangling the idea of a Palin presidential run as a serious, laudable venture. And it doesn't speak well for their mental states that they think they'll still be around in 2012, given that the editorial board of a shuttered paper is about as likely to be reused as a disembodied toupee. But claiming that Palin's performance at the wingnut Bonnaroo somehow indicates a depth of insight and a coherent intellectual vision of America is nothing less than lunacy.
Now, I know that this is the New York Sun, which has been pushing birther bullshit since January 2008 and which only pops up every month or so to put up a drab piece of right-wing tripe on their web site, but even for a zombie masthead run by hacks, you'd think some scintilla of objective reality would find its way into a story about one of the great visual implosions in recent political memory. I'm willing to let them slide on not referencing the extreme levels of crazy that had preceded Palin at the podium. I'll even give 'em a pass on writing a sentence as asinine as, "From the recognition that a war is being waged against us flows a lot of things, including a comprehension that peace overtures are not to be reciprocated." (Their position goes against everyone from Jesus Christ to John F. Kennedy, but whatever.)
But is it really asking too much for the GOP's media outlets to take a second and evaluate just why exactly they're covering for this sort of incompetent, reactionary demagogue?