I think that Miss Noonan may have unconsciously touched on what is really going on here when she accuses Mrs. Palin – who is attracting crowds as big if not bigger than any Reagan ever drew – of being a “follower … not a leader.” Miss Noonan’s unconscious fear may be that it will be precisely Mrs. Palin (and others like her) who will be among the leaders of the about to be re-born conservative movement. I suspect that the conservative movement we start re-building on the ashes of November 4th (even if Mr. McCain wins) will have little use for over-written, over-delicate commentary.

The new movement will be plain spoken and social networked up from the internetted streets, suburbs and small towns of America. It certainly will not listen very attentively to those conservatives who idolatrize Mr. Obama and collaborate in heralding his arrival. They may call their commentary “honesty.” I would call it – at the minimum – blindness.