Tell you something I appreciate about Palin — one more thing. In the general election of 2008, the candidates talked a lot about the home-mortgage crisis, as well they should have. And they said how evil Wall Street was — how evil the lenders were. They had hoodwinked the people and all.

But Sarah Palin did something quite unusual — she certainly did this in the vice-presidential debate. She said that the borrowers had a role to play too: something to answer for. Didn’t our parents tell us to live within our means? she said. “We need to make sure that, as individuals, we’re taking personal responsibility through all of this.”

You hear about “speaking truth to power.” Everyone loves to do that: “speak truth to power.” There is such a thing as speaking truth to the people, too. Politicians, understandably, are reluctant to do this. Palin isn’t.