Mirror Image at the New Republic

The New Republic's Jonathan Chait's "quick response" to Sarah Palin's speech in Dayton:

It sort of seemed like one of those regular person testimonials where somebody gets up and talks about their family and their blue-collar job -- except then she says that she's on the ticket. Maybe it will help McCain connect with blue-collar voters. Maybe she'll come off as someone you can't possibly imagine as president. I don't know. It's really different.

I agree that we don't know how she will ultimately play (I'm very optimistic). But regarding his impression of Sarah Palin -- we really do live in different worlds. Right-wingers see Obama and think he's like some kind of motivational speaker (world-class, no doubt), or some Master of Feelings combination of Oprah and Deepak Choprah (hey, they rhyme) until he says "... and that's why I'm running for president."

In fact, "motivational speaker" seems to capture Obama's whole shtick; after all, motivational speakers don't actually accomplish things (other than generating their gig), they urge you to accomplish things. (Obama does have one big accomplishment: he beat the Clintons in a long and tough primary, despite having no accomplishments.)

Or we can use the game of basketball to illustrate the difference between Obama and Palin, since word has it they both got game. As the star point guard for her high school basketball team, Palin hit the free throw in the last seconds in the state championship to win the game. Obama's most famous shot was that beautiful three-pointer he hit at the military base while over in Europe. Except, it wasn't really worth three points, because it wasn't in an actual game. Just an awesome photo op.

(I wish I had, like, famous readers from the Left who could quote me out context and claim that I'm saying a good game of hoops qualifies you to be commander in chief. 'Cause that would be awesome.)