"No leader in America today presents so clear a threat to business as usual in Washington as Senator John S. McCain."

Also sprach Sarah Palin, today. McCain says: "My friends, she beat the odds and the political establishment when she ran for governor to take on corruption and the kind of politics that puts the interest of politicians and special interests above your interests." But remember, everyone, he only picked her because she was a woman. He didn't pick her because he sees in her much the same kind of qualities he sees in himself; or because she represents someone with executive experience who has successfully taken on the sort of entrenched interests McCain wants to take on in Washington; or for any of the reasons some of us urged the pick. No, it was a cynical ploy. Be good little citizens and don't question the meme.

According to Michael Reynolds, not even a good cynical ploy, either: he thinks that "[t]he Palin nomination was a huge mistake." Makes me think of the "Some chicken! Some neck!" speech. Some mistake! The Palin nomination has, at one stroke, unified, and injected a sense of excitement and energy into, a GOP that had hiterto been lacking these things; destroyed Obama's convention momentum (and suppressed coverage of his speech); captured control of the news cycle, putting the Democrats on the defensive; forced the MSM to reveal their por-Obama hand; and dragged screaming into the light the rancid slimy misogyny latent in the liberal base. Whatever one might say about Sarah Palin, McCain's choice was, without any doubt or close rival, the greatest tactical and strategic masterstroke of any campaign this cycle (it would be matched by Obama's withdrawing from public funding if that decision had been made by the McCain campaign). McCain has picked someone that the Democrats can't lay a glove on, and can't try without looking utterly ridiculous (for example, should they claim that she's inexperienced, they only highlight that our veep has more experience than their top of ticket choice; should they point to Bristol Palin's pregnancy, they will have to explain why that's so bad when their own candidate's mother gave birth to him at 18 herself; etc. ad nauseum). Some mistake!

Other Palin memes debunked: Sarah wasn't vetted (or was inadequately-vetted) | Sarah was picked because she's a she | Sarah said she didn't know what the veep does | Abstinence-only education failed Bristol Palin