A reader:

I appreciate that you’re taking a wait-and-see approach on the presidential candidates for 2012–we should probably all do that. I just wish you conservative elite types–and I don’t mean that in an insulting way–would defend Palin when she is viciously attacked, as she has been again and again. Instead you took a swipe at her for not being able to write her own speeches.

Defend Palin when she is unfairly criticized? You mean, like here and here and here and here and here and here and here? I’ll get right on it. As for my alleged “swipe,” check the context. I was commenting on two lines in a Washington Post article on Palin that I found amusing–one by her in an endorsement letter, one by one of her critics. I noted that her line was better but said, in fairness to the other guy, that she may not have written it herself. I don’t think it would be wise for most politicians to write their own speeches or op-eds, and would never criticize Palin for that reason.