WHAT is she talking about?

Two things about Sarah Palin bug/frighten/amaze me.

I realized it after her debate with Biden. (Not that this will matter to her supporters, because it’s clear that few of them will be honest in evaluating her weaknesses, likely viewing them as strengths instead. Whatever. It was after reading the transcript below from her Saturday appearance in Iowa that I was left dumbfounded.

First, like Hillary, she talks at you. She just doesn’t connect. Don’t confuse that with saying the right things either. She does, in spades, buckets and droves, nailing all of the GOP’s Greatest Talking Point Hits. I’m talking about one on one. She plays to the room instead of the individual she's speaking to.

Hillary was worse in this regard however. Say what you will about her policies, but her failure to connect as a person without this affect, this persona if you will, is what ultimately did her in. Ironically, it was only after defeat when she worked the talk show circuit in support of Obama that she became more human, even understated.

Something else though about Palin reveals another problem I have with her being nominated.

It’s one thing to attack a specific point made by a candidate, both sides do it. It’s another though to round the argument up to the nearest blanket statement, just because it makes a nice soundbite.

Vice presidents don’t usually factor in much, and sometimes even say things that get blown up out of proportion, but read the following excerpts from her appearance yesterday and tell me if she hasn’t lost it. The leaps from point A to G to R?

Staggering:

...She labeled Obama’s plan to provide tax credits to lower and middle-income wage-earners “the philosophy of government taking more, which is a misuse of the power to tax.”

“It leads to government moving into the role of taking care of you, and government and politicians and, kind of moving in as the other half of your family to make decisions for you,” she said. “Now they do this in other countries where the people are not free. Government as part of the family, taking care of us, making decisions for us. I don’t know what to think of having in my family Uncle Barney Frank or others to make decisions for me.”

With audience members shouting “socialist!” throughout her speech, the Alaska governor said that time is running out for Americans to realize the danger of a having a Democrat in the White House. “Are we hearing what he is saying with 10 days to go?,” she asked plaintively. “Are voters hearing what he is saying about his plans for bigger government?”

At the beginning of her remarks, Palin appeared to ad-lib a riff about her much-discussed wardrobe, which has the been the subject of scrutiny since Politico reported last week that the RNC spent $150,000 on clothes for Palin and her family before the Republican National Convention in September.

“Your state is filled with good, hard-working people all loving the outdoors,” she said, “and it was nice and crisp getting off the airplane and coming into the — it reminded me a lot of Alaska, so I put my warm jacket on, and it is my own jacket. It doesn't belong to anybody else."

Now, I could start to decipher this, like the part about Obama's policies leading to government running things in your life, but then I'd have to also mention the part where her potential future boss voted for a $150 billion dollar bailout, and how is that any different. But why let facts get in the way.

There’s something about the presence someone has, an intangible, the vibe they give off that says, yeah, I’d follow them into hell mister. Doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with their experience per se, just call it a hunch, a gut feeling. Whatever.

But if you can honestly say after watching and listening to Sarah Palin that she’s better suited to step into the role of president than either Obama, Biden or McCain, you’re a better person than I am.