The Sarah Palin extreme

All people are subject to excesses. Bruckner symphonies are too long.  The groovey threads that cats and chicks wore in the sixties look silly in old movies.  The Democratic party went too far in the sixties and seventies.  It tolerated corruption in the name of reform.  It worked to raise taxes and over-spend on often ineffective social programs.  This led to the Reagan backlash.  Bill Clinton got elected by bringing discipline back to the Democratic Party.  He convinced them that Americans would not trust Democrats to run the country until the Democratic party had proven to Americans that it could handle the responsibility.  Now it’s Republicans who have gone too far.  All those Bush appointed “heckofajobbers” left an impression that will take some work to overcome.  Voters will remember the Katrina and Iraq disasters, and the economic meltdown at the end of the Bush years.  If Republicans want Americans to trust them, they will have to prove that they can put competence before ideology and think rationally about our policy choices.Sarah Palin is not helping.  I watched her on Hannity last night.  She said we should be firmer with Iran – we should put on economic sanctions already.  Hasn’t anyone told her that US sanctions without world cooperation would mean nothing to Iran?  She said we should pressure Russia to stop cooperating with Iran.  Doesn’t she know that Bush and Obama both did this?  -- OK, that’s as much as I could take.  She obviously doesn’t know enough to get anywhere near actual policy decisions.Palin is reinforcing all those negative stereotypes voters have about Republicans – incompetence, inability to look at all sides of policy decisions, ideology in place if real ideas.  Voters will have trouble trusting Republicans to run the country as long they see Republicans treating Palin as an asset rather than a liability.