House of Inexperience

Daniel Larison writes in the online The American Conservative about Sarah Palin's continued ragged showings, and how the conservative establishment is dumbing down their definition of excellence in order to make it seem like Palin is rising to the challenge.

Noonan and Brooks actually fall over themselves trying to compliment Palin on the modest success of being coherent, but these excerpts are striking in that someone might have written them as withering, sarcastic criticism and instead they are supposed to be a celebration of her virtues. Noonan complains that Biden showed too much forbearance, but this is exactly what Noonan and Brooks show in their efforts to tip-toe around the obvious that for all her mastery of the non-answer and glittering generalities, to borrow Halcro’s language, she did not do very well. Incredibly, her fans don’t seem to mind debasing the meaning of excellence if it allows them to call what we saw last night excellent. There ought to have been some acknowledgement that it didn’t matter, that McCain was already fumbling and crumbling under the weight of his own mistakes, but instead we are treated to newfound, baseless enthusiasm...