The Corner's Jay Nordlinger makes a strange point, apparently in defense of Sarah Palin:
I missed the vice-presidential debate, being in an airplane. But I watched some of it last night. And one of the things I was most struck by was Governor Palin’s extreme self-confidence. Her critics say she has nothing to be self-confident about. But she hasn’t gotten the message. She seemed actually to relish being there, and talking, and performing, and getting her points across. She is supposed to be a dunce and a laughingstock. But, again, she hasn’t gotten the message.
I was reminded of something I’ve written about a couple of times, and if you have read this from my pen, forgive me: Several years ago, I was at the annual meeting in Davos, and Attorney General Ashcroft was there. A reporter from a powerful newspaper said, “He has some nerve, showing up here” (or words to that effect). “Why does he think he has a place in a gathering like this?”
And I said, “But you see, Ashcroft doesn’t see himself as a joke. He sees himself as a graduate of Yale University and Chicago Law. Someone who was elected state attorney general, then governor, then senator — and who is now attorney general of the United States. He regards himself as one of the most successful, accomplished, and important people in America.”
Um, yeah, but Ashcroft is a graduate of Yale and Chicago Law who went on to have a long, successful political career. Palin is, er .... not.
--Noam Scheiber