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Palin’s Overreach

In my articulation of Sarah Palin’s goals for her speech tonight, I suggested that “it will be imperative for Palin not to overreach.” The rest of her prepared remarks look like they should be pretty effective, but this is probably an exception:

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

We’ll see how well she is able to deliver this line — it is sure to get big applause in St. Paul. But it seems awfully petty for a party campaigning on the theme of service (of which there are other types apart from enlisting in the military) — especially when Obama and Biden, if not always their supporters, have by and large been exceptionally gracious toward Palin . If you want a punchline that underscores liberal “elitism”, why not go after Obama’s time as the President of the Harvard Law Review instead?

Nate Silver is the founder and editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight.

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