by “smart,” I don't refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don't really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I'd heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.
I like the defense of Our Sarah, but what interests me more is the last line. A bunch of us were talking over dinner the other night (actually, the rehearsal dinner for my dear friend's wedding --there are no apolitical occasions during election season) about the root cause of Palin Derangement Syndrome. My observation was that radical feminism has more or less destroyed feminine identity. Nobody knows who she is anymore, and we're all threatened by those rare figures who do know who they are. Can you name a similarly self-possessed woman on the national scene? Find your identity in Christ, you remain a fallible human being, but you achieve an interior liberty that is truly human.
Curtsy: Hugh Hewitt
