But whatever Palin and Poujade have in common, they differ in this significant matter: Poujade’s movement was strictly bottom-up. He created it, and it was named for him. In Palin’s case, it was the politically greedy John McCain who placed the slipper of fame on her foot — upon which she put it in her mouth. She said the most astounding things about foreign policy (Alaska is close to Russia, etc.), later fibbed about death panels and, in general, did a spot-on imitation of a ditz. It was a remarkable performance…

As for the right, it, too, refused to see Palin for what she was. A gaggle of neoconservatives, possibly seasick from a cruise up the Alaska coast, disembarked and were struck dumb — literally — by Palin’s quite evident charisma. For some of them, this was a clear case of what Freud called Shiksa Madness (look it up), while for others it must have something to do with salmon. Whatever, some of them thought they had found the perfect (empty) vessel to regain control of the Republican Party and most of the United States, with the possible exception of the Blue B’s — Boulder, Berkeley and Brooklyn.