Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

From the extracts I've read--no one is claiming she didn't write the e-mails--she comes across as bright, insightful, principled, and in contradistinction to the current occupant of the White House, with a sense of humor about herself, not taking herself too seriously.

Professor Jacobson, please keep your readers informed of all the leftists who will now retract their assertions that she's ignorant and stupid. I'm sure there will be a slew of honest commentators who will be upfront and admit that they were wrong about her...lots...any day now.

Listening to Dennis Miller interview David Mamet and Mamet talks about the left's vile attitude about Palin, as he says, because they are afraid of her. Dennis sums up Palin brilliantly:

"Palin gets things, sometimes clumsily, correct ... I'm sick of watching people [on the left] get things brilliantly wrong."

LukeHandCool (who tends to get things brilliantly correct).

So does the WaPo today and it took- I believe- three writers there to creatively spin gold (her emails) into dreck.

AP is not alone. This whole incident is giving the press fits. The story they wanted (and expected) just didn't emerge, so they have to huff and puff and wrestle a negative headline onto a benign story!

There was a famous Walt Kelly Pogo cartoon poster published many years ago that, as a promotion for the first Earth Day, captured well the "law" of unintended consequences, featuring Pogo Possum staring at the junk and trash all around him in the forest, and with a blank stare on his face saying:

"We have met the enemy, and he is us!"

What must it feel like today when, as a reporter emerging and gasping for air from the furious feeding flurry of the press over Sarah Palin's official 24,000 emails, what follows was all Molly Ball had to offer?

"Long-lost Sarah Palin surfaces in emails".

The whole gist of this Politico story could be fairly summed up as . . . "we reporters are reminded by these emails of the 'old Sarah' (i.e., the real Sarah); NOT the "new Sarah" (i.e., the one we created).

Could any politician ask for better press than what follows?

"She was hands-on and averse to partisan politics. She championed openness in government and had normal relations with the media. She was a little starstruck by her interactions with national politicians but unafraid to do battle with the chief executives of the world's largest oil companies.

. . .

She comes across as practical and not doctrinaire, as when she explains at length to an aide, early in her term, why she opposes a bear hunt in a wildlife preserve: "I am a hunter. I grew up hunting — some of my best memories growing up are of hunting with my dad to help feel (sic) our freezer… I want Alaskans to have access to wildlife… BUT — he's asking if I support hunting the bears in the sanctuary? No, I don’t … Many Alaskan and Outside visitors view these animals on the McNeil river, within the sanctuary, and, as my parents have reported back after their viewing trip, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see such beauty on that river."

. . .

If critics were hoping to see Palin revealed as a hypocrite, they’re out of luck. Her private statements are in line with her public ones when it comes to issues like Troopergate, the ethics scandal in which she was accused of abusing her authority to punish her sister’s ex-husband. Her emails on the matter fulminate against what she insists are false accusations, maintaining the same consistent defense — that Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired for performance, not personal, reasons.

Palin comes across as neither an airhead nor a prima donna. She is warm and supportive with her staff, who are loyal to her in turn.

. . .

Nor is she a figurehead. She is active in guiding policy, a self-assured politician who knows where she stands. When she feels she’s been left out of the loop on responding to a disaster, she’s adamant — "someone from Homeland Security/Emergency Management needs to call me and inform me on things like this … I insist on being informed during any situation where the public would feel any person could be in danger."

. . . . "

But alas, Molly also feels constrained to "compare and contrast" . . . i.e., to critique the "new Sarah," seemingly unaware that so much of "her" is an imaginary persona, one they see because it's a part of the narrative, which so many of them managed to relentlessly sow into the public consciousness.

Molly hasn't quite caught up with Pogo, but now that she's seen the real person behind the curtain, she may begin to further cut loose from the obligatory storyline version of events.

Jane Swift was an embarrassment. Period.