Greg Sargent of the Plum Line is utterly baffled:
I'm really not sure what to make of this astonishing number from Rasmussen about the 2012 GOP primary:
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is the top choice for those Republicans who put national security first....
Palin is the top choice among Republicans whose top concern is national security? I can see how folks would find Palin appealing as a folksy and combative hockey mom type, an outsider and reformer who dukes it out with coastal elites on behalf of ordinary Everymoms all over the vast middle of the country. But as a military leader? ...
Oh, Greg, Greg, Greg.
Have you never even tried to see the world through wingnut eyes? To wingnuts, real-world experience and depth of knowledge are weaknesses; a superficial, refrigerator-magnet-level grasp of the elemental dichotomies -- good/evil, flag-waver/agent of darkness -- is far more valuable. You don't need to know geopolitics to be a foreign policy giant -- it's better if you don't. What you need to know is old movies, or patriotic tunes, or the Bible, or sports; if you understand a sock on the jaw in a Western movie bar brawl, or country songs about kicking ass, or the Biblical tale of Queen Esther, or pumped-up high school boys slamming one another on the grdiron minutes after emerging from a pre-game prayer circle, then you're ready to lead.
Got one of these on your truck?
Then you're probably a Palin fan. Yeah, it's a joke -- but it's still a way to imagine that geopolitics is a game for amateurs and ordinary schlubs (hey, maybe I'll catch bin Laden as I'm heading out to the hardware store on a Saturday!).
Greg, you live in Eggheadland. This is "the real America" we're talking about. Things are different there.
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