Will Wilkinson on Palin

My feelings on Palin line up with Will Wilkinson’s one hundred percent. I like Sarah Palin, I think she was a great VP pick, and I can’t help wanting her to win. However, that doesn’t mean my beliefs about politics and government have changed. Wilkinson writes:

I do not think politics is noble, and I deplore career politicians like Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, and, yes, Hillary Clinton. I would in fact rather be ruled by competent small-town mayors than accomplished professional rent-seekers. (Palin, being very smart, made great strides in this regard during her short time as Governor, because opportunistic predation is what politics is.) 

Like Kevin Kline in the movie Dave, Palin is appealing because she seems like a normal, genuine person somehow thrust into politics. The audience is supposed to like Dave, and I did; liking him didn’t make his policy of creating “a job for every American who wants one” any better.

Rationally, I don’t think that the choice of President, much less the Vice President, has much influence over the country; nobody is going to “clean up Washington,” because that phrase has no real meaning. Politics is opportunistic predation. Still, my gut, like Wilkinson’s, wants to root for Palin anyway.