More on Sarah

When Daniel asked the other day "What is the difference between the U.S. election and the Canada election?" the first thing that popped into my head was rather odd.  It wasn't the length of campaign time and  the arduous journey that the presidential hopefuls undertake.  I didn't think immediately of the fundamental differences between our two systems of government and the process we each follow in calling an election.  Rather, what first came to mind was the similarity between an American election and the use of one-liners in stand-up comedy.  

Think of Jay Leno or David Letterman.  They get up in front of their respective audiences every night and crack one-liners.  They are sometimes self-effacing, at other times mediocre, but usually they make us laugh, and we feel good, even when the jokes are off-colour or just plain distasteful.  The "lines" they use swirl around in our heads for hours and sometimes even days, and each time we think back to them, even the ones that are perhaps in poor taste, we wind up feeling good again, relating to and, well, liking  the person who said them.   We jump on the bus without stopping to examine the substance of what has been said, or considering what the message really is.  In a word, we're "charmed".

Like many politicians before her, Sarah Palin is a charmer.  I think the political code-word for this is "charisma" and to a certain extent, politicians need to have that characteristic.  She burst onto the scene, young, fresh and energetic.   Being a relative unknown, we knew about her only what we were told:  that she is a busy career woman, a devoted wife and mother and a selfless servant of the public.  We see that she has "real" people problems - a pregnant teenage daughter and a special-needs baby.  (Okay - maybe her problems are beyond what most of us have to face).  Then she hit us with the one-liners on everything from Mr. McCain's leadership, to children with special needs and being a mother of someone who was about to be deployed to Iraq.  It's a picture as American as apple pie,  framed with whispers of that hockey-mom/pitbull/lipstick number.

I have to admit, I was taken in by it for awhile.  Sarah Palin is from my generation.  She's a workin' mom like me, partnered with a real-man kinda guy.  She gets out of bed in the morning and goes into the world and tries to make a difference.  I could relate.  Then the Charlie Gibson interview happened and it left me feeling a little confused about her. 

At this point, I'm still not sure what to make of Sarah Palin (or any other candidate in the American election for that matter).  Fortunately for me, however, I'm not an American and so I'm not faced with making a decision about whether or not to vote for her.  I do hope, however, that Americans, as citizens of the "flagship of democracy", take the time to consider whether or not the Sarah Palin we see in the process is something more than the sum of her parts.