Plessner Chronicle Blog

If Democrats believe what they are saying about Sarah Palin after her debate with Joe Biden, and if they act upon those ideas, they do so at their own peril.

Palins performance in St. Louis (where I grew up within a mile of Washington University), was exceptional, given her background and her previous appearances with Katie Couric and others. Those of us who are elitists (this author included) will see her as the completely uninformed small town mayor and small state governor that she is.

But Americans like her young parents, Evangelicals, urban small business owners, rural people and hourly workers male and female will see her as one their own and that includes one heck of a lot of voters, by golly!

And it will also diminish the hesitancy of many blue collar voters across the country and especially in the South, who are not eager to vote for a black man for president, a fact of American life that all Americans should be concerned about.

As for her cute dialect of “you betchas” and “by gollies”, Americans should remember that Strom Thurmond and other politicians of the last decade also talked like hicks and no one made fun of them.

Television is not about content, it is about appearances and in her debate performance Sarah Palin appeared smart and eager, two qualities most Americans admire.

Of course she is not qualified to become president and if, God forbid, a President John McCain should die in office, America and the world would be in even greater peril.

Of course she has little knowledge of how Washington works. Of course she is probably uninformed about anything political beyond the South end of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. And of course she has a lot of ideas about global warming and Evolution that most Americans dont share.

But one heck of a lot of ordinary Americans like a woman with spunk and that is why Democrats ought to take Sarah Palin more seriously.

P.S. And if she gets elected I may move to Alaska, dadgum it!