delong…one of the more insightful articles and analysis of the political class that i’ve read to date,my sentiments exactly. cognitive disonance…that’s a good word, but needs more explaining. it might be a set of political values held by a group of people who become confused and disoriented when an alien set of values intrudes and are considered so alien and unworkable they must be rejected. i heard a perfect example of this while listinging to scott allen miller subbing for tom sullivan. i was at my typewriter banging away on a piece and only turning up the volume during talk. miller made a remark in passing that went completely unchallenged, saying that if palin runs in 2012, we’ll have another bob dole-type candidate. i paused in utter amazement, since i see absolutly no similarity between dole’s campaign and palin’s reform campaign. so i want to addto your list of the disfunctional political class. one can deeply respect bob dole’s service to his country which left him with a wound so terrible he lost function of his right arm. as a senate leader he was good but not exceptional. his tenure as senate leader consisted of rubber-stamping rep. legislation and curbing democrat exess. but his campaign was lack-luster. he couldn’t compete with the flamboyant bill clinton and even old guard eastern establishment repubs. wondered if he could win. all doubts were erased when he went down to an ignominious defeat at the hands of the clintons. there’s no similarity between the style palin is a national and world-wide phenomenon
