by SE Mathews

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: December 16, 2008

Sarah Palin does not speak with the Fargo-esque accent that Tina Fey's impersonation made famous on Saturday Night Live, but there is a sense that she is in over her head when she is faced with questions that go beyond her comfort zone.

As a communicator, it is clear that Sarah Palin has her strong points. Watch her work a room and there is a glow. Even her detractors have to admit that the woman sparkles when the lights and attention are on her. Give her a speech and rehearsal time and the woman is going to bring it and bring it hard so she should not be underestimated.

She also works well one on one. In the line, she makes contact with her supporters on an almost tribal level. They like her and she likes them. She knows what they want and she delivers it to them.

In other words, put her in front of the choir and she can preach with flair, vivacity and ferocity.

Unfortunately, it takes more than performing in front of a like-minded choir or two to make a solid connection with the American public, a notoriously diverse and prickly entity.

We, the American public, are an odd animal. We can be naive and knowledgeable in the space of two breaths. We gasp and laugh at Palin's gaffes but we often do so after we have been educated on facts that we would never have known had Palin not made the gaffe in the first place.

Does that make the American public hypocrites? Well, yes, but the point also unearths the reality that in spite of the media's obsession that the American public wants our politicians to be someone that we can drink with, the fact is that we really don't want that. We want our politicians to be smarter than the average American.

After all, these people are going to be in charge of the country. Do we want a dummy in charge? Late night comedy jokes notwithstanding, George W. Bush was not a dummy. I'd take his C-plus grades at Yale over my B+ grades at Honolulu Community College any day.

Yet even Bush, an Ivy Leaguer, had trouble putting it all together with his words and actions.

Politics on the national and international stage is not for the faint of heart.

Palin has shown that she is willing to put herself out there. She has her strengths and it comes through when the subjects are those she is familiar with. In that sense, she is a good, but not gifted, communicator.

Yet, if she is merely a good communicator, does that mean she is an eternal gaffer? I'd say that the answer is, "No."

Palin has not been on the national stage long enough to be an eternal gaffer. She is only just beginning. If she is still making the same mistakes of not knowing details like the Bush Doctrine or Supreme Court decisions aside from Roe v Wade that supports abortion rights two years from now, then I would say that she is on her way to becoming another Quayle.

For now, though, she is a local politician who is still learning the ropes of the Big Stage. She may not have been ready for the main cast as yet, but with practice, she might just get there.

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