Sarah Palin: The Overdose

While the issue of ratification of the SALT treaty on nuclear arms reduction with Russia should be at the top of every newspaper, it is Sarah Palin who takes center stage. Her show on Alaska (where she could see Russia, which accounted for her expertise in foreign policy) on the cable channel TLC has attracted 5 million viewers, twice as many as another star show, “Mad Men.” Her daughter Bristol, who is participating in the show “Dancing With the Stars,” has catapulted it to the top of ratings with 21 million viewers. And now in a few days Palin’s new book, “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag,’’ will be released. Even before its publication, the book should appear at the top of the bestsellers, beating out George W. Bush and Keith Richards. We should start a channel that would broadcast only information on Palin. It would free up space for more interesting and more essential information. Importantly, it would allow those who do not place stupidity on a pedestal to escape it.

The Wall Street Journal, the bastion of conservative intellectual elitism for a long time (during another era — one in which Rupert Murdoch had not yet laid hands on the Journal), is also buying into Palin. No kidding; the WSJ praised Palin “who shows a knack for putting a technical subject in a language that the average American can understand,” as regarding the monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve and its program of “quantitative easing.” Even though the book was not written by the former governor of Alaska, this does not prevent Palin from having a very high opinion of herself. Interviewed by Barbara Walters on ABC News last week, Palin said she thought she could beat Obama in 2012.

All that would have caused anyone else to fall has only reinforced her rise: her unbridled commercialism, her sordid family history, her ignorance on important issues when she aspires to govern and her brazen lies. All of this plays to her advantage with an electorate whose members find themselves in her.

Frank Rich, a columnist at The New York Times, is not one of those who slapped his thighs with laughter while listening to the Palin interview with Barbara Walters. He is among those who think that the running mate of John McCain could well beat the 44th president, so long as Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, also enters the race for the White House and thereby divides the natural electorate for Barack Obama.

For now, however, polls do not support Sarah Palin. Just after the 2010 midterm elections, 52 percent of Americans had a negative image of her, according to a Gallup poll. It is only within the GOP that she is popular, with a score of 80 percent positive reviews.

But the Republican Party establishment — i.e. Karl Rove and company — is doing everything they can behind the scenes to sink any Palin candidacy in advance. His fear: that she wins the Republican primary in 2012 and is then crushed by Obama in the presidential election, which is an experience the Democrats had with George McGovern in 1972. That Democratic candidate won only one state out of 50: Massachusetts, home of the Kennedy family.

Yet recent history should encourage Palin supporters. George W. Bush, who was also criticized for his intellectual laziness, his thin résumé, his lack of curiosity and his inexperience in foreign policy, won the presidential election. A lesson to ponder. And that is scary.