The elites hate Ms. Palin, in truth, because she is subversive. But her subversiveness has its bounds, and this is what makes her such a skilled politician. Many wonder, in this context—my editor-in-chief included—why Ms. Palin has thrown her support behind John McCain, and not J.D. Hayworth, his Republican challenger in Arizona’s senatorial primaries. Surely one answer is obvious: Mr. Hayworth isn’t going to win, so why expend political capital on a loser? But there’s another answer, more important than the first: She has a loyalty to Mr. McCain. Did he not, after all, pull her out of Alaskan obscurity and place her on a national stage? Things went badly, of course, and almost from day two (day one was a cracker!), but she has ascribed the blame for that to Mr. McCain’s handlers. By contrast, she does not know Mr. Hayworth, and owes him nothing (especially with all his political buffoonery).
In stumping for Mr. McCain, Ms. Palin is able to reassure the GOP establishment that she is a pro, not a flamethrower, and also make clear to them that if they go into battle for November’s elections without her, they will have a much harder time getting recalcitrant Tea Partiers on board. She is offering, in effect, to deliver much of the Tea Party to the Republicans—in exchange for respect, and for a reasonable accommodation of Tea Party concerns.
Ms. Palin, it is clear, knows her own strengths. But she also knows her own limitations. She will not be president, and she knows that. (How could she not?) She may not, in fact, run for office again. Her last experience has left her scarred. (How could it not?) And so, Ms. Palin has retailored herself as a power-broker, a puller of crowds, a gleeful Maroon leading her bands in raids on the establishment, an ideological watchdog, a plainspoken Everywoman. This, one is certain, is where her true worth lies—whether in a “black leather dominatrix jacket,” or out of one.
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