For Impromptus today, I scribbled a great many items and thoughts. But there is an item I meant to include, but forgot about. May I lay it on you here? It has to do with Sarah Palin (wouldn’t you know?).

A new Democratic line has formed — it has shown up in my mail, and in opinion pieces. It is this: “Listen, we would have been all right with another vice-presidential nominee: a Romney, a Ridge, a Pawlenty, a Hutchison. They are all mature politicians. They have all been vetted. They are all unquestionably qualified for the vice-presidency. But McCain tried to get cute, foisting a novel, hickish dunce on the country.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m sure they would have been just fine with any of those other picks. I can hear them now: “Why did we get just another Republican hack — just the same-old, same-old? I mean, McCain could have done something bold and creative! For instance, how about Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska? How about thinking outside the box? She’s a reformer, she’s independent-minded. She took on the Republican establishment in her state. She shook things up. She has broad bipartisan support. She’s not part of the old boys’ network. But maybe that is precisely the problem: Can you imagine the GOP putting a woman on the ticket?”

It’s kind of like invading a country: You always invaded the wrong one; you should have invaded this other one, or taken some kind of action against it. Then you would have had the support of the whole country.

I think of something else, too: When Bush 41 was president, liberal pundits said, “If only he were a sensible, decent Republican, like his father.” In fact, 41 had to defend himself against this line, at a press conference — saying, “I think my dad would be proud of me.” (I believe those were his exact words.) And then when W. became president, it was, “Oh, if only he were a sensible, decent Republican, like his father.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Look: They think Palin’s stupid. That’s the thing. It always comes down to that. And, as I note in today’s Impromptus, they always say that — almost always say that, about conservative political leaders. Check it out, and think about it.