I missed the vice-presidential debate, being in an airplane. But I watched some of it last night. And one of the things I was most struck by was Governor Palin’s extreme self-confidence. Her critics say she has nothing to be self-confident about. But she hasn’t gotten the message. She seemed actually to relish being there, and talking, and performing, and getting her points across. She is supposed to be a dunce and a laughingstock. But, again, she hasn’t gotten the message.
I was reminded of something I’ve written about a couple of times, and if you have read this from my pen, forgive me: Several years ago, I was at the annual meeting in Davos, and Attorney General Ashcroft was there. A reporter from a powerful newspaper said, “He has some nerve, showing up here” (or words to that effect). “Why does he think he has a place in a gathering like this?”
And I said, “But you see, Ashcroft doesn’t see himself as a joke. He sees himself as a graduate of Yale University and Chicago Law. Someone who was elected state attorney general, then governor, then senator — and who is now attorney general of the United States. He regards himself as one of the most successful, accomplished, and important people in America.”
And the reporter, to his credit said, “I never thought of it that way.”
P.S. From what I saw, Palin was about ten times better than McCain was in any of his three debates. Yet she’s supposed to be the drag on the ticket?