by W Thomas Payne

Created on: November 17, 2008   Last Updated: December 16, 2008

Sarah Palin is no Great Communicator, and may never become one, not on a mass communication scale. However, the mainstream media went too far in calling her a hopeless gaffer, incapable of grasping larger issues, or being unable to prepare for dealing with them. Her trademark wink and grin might be endearing one-on-one, but it comes off as phony and insincere on television, at the least, and makes her look like she is trying to remain entirely too cute when she is discussing weighty matters.

Much ado has been made of Governor Palin being the Chief Executive of one of the nation's lowest population states yet no one seemed to bother to make note of the same distinction that Democratic wunderkind Bill Clinton held as governor of Arkansas, with a state population smaller than Chicago, and barely larger than Miami. Would anyone dare make this comparison if the candidate was from Connecticut? Highly unlikely.

The position of state governor is no laughing matter. It requires not only dealing with the day-to-day operation of multi-billion dollar business of state government, but in coping with open political in-fighting amongst friends and foes alike. It requires intense attention to details, while maintaining an ability to see the big picture. The voters in Alaska happen to think she has a good grasp of how to run their state, with an 80% approval rating.

And it requires being able to communicate effectively with a populous scattered over vast tracts of wilderness, to people who are no-nonsense about their very survival, to people who would chew up and spit out a nancypants lawyer who talked down to them. So obviously, Palin does have the ability to communicate effectively to an audience, when given the opportunity to do so without potshots from the East Coast intelligentsia.

But could Palin hope to survive a national level election, if she was the horse in the race? Doubtful, at least as long as the pundits with access to the media focus on her style versus her substance. Her folksy manner does not seem to portray what the American people are being told they should perceive as "Presidential," whatever that means in a nation made up of such a conglomeration of races, ethnicities, and ancestral heritage.

Personally, I think it might be time that we had another President who was more in touch with the daily lives of regular working people, instead of the Ivy League lawyers who seem to always dominate the race. The last "regular folks" President to be elected was Andrew Jackson, a plain-speaking, rough and tumble woodsman from Tennessee which was a frontier state much like Alaska at the time of his election.

Could Palin change that style and become the next Republican candidate for President? Perhaps, if she chooses to run for the Senate, and becomes exposed to the Washington crowd and the "big boys" of politics on a bigger stage, where she would have an opportunity to practice her oratorical skills for open critique and polishing.

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