Palin was chosen to flip the high school-educated or less female vote, those disillusioned primary voters formerly referred to as “Hillary Democrats.” There aren’t enough of them to make a difference in the outcome, but over the last two weeks this woman’s incredible attractiveness has proven to draw the attention of voters from other demographics, and there was, as best I can tell from abroad, a reason to be alarmed until she opened her mouth and said Russia wasn’t a problem because you can see it from Alaska. I haven’t seen Tina Fey’s videos yet, but I’ve heard that she will do more to derail the Palin train than Obama ever could.
I’ll also say I’m sad about the whole thing. People here admire our democracy with a naivety that is shared by most Americans. They believe we make decisions on policy, that we’ve curtailed corruption, and that we have a system that enables us to fix problems. From abroad, this election season has just made me so absolutely morose about Democracy in America, which is little more than a parade of pretty faces and petty arguments designed to attract the attention of a populace stupefied by television and attracted by attractiveness. It stands in stark contrast to the democracy of ideas and ideals that people think, at home and abroad, like to think we have.
