Rod Dreher has now formally adopted the Parker Principle: two bad media interviews trump experience as governor.
In his latest Dreher asserts that he really, really likes Governor Palin, but just thinks her unfit to be Vice-president.
Of course, Dreher has been arguing that she is an empty pants suit, easily manipulated, and lacking in intellectual curiosity, so it is easy how many of us have come to the not-so-wild conclusion that the normally wonderful Dreher has lost it over Governor Palin.
If Dreher is correct in his assessment of Governor Palin, she would not be fit to be Governor of Alaska let alone Vice-President of the United States. Her great success there would be a matter of phenomenal luck.
Dreher has been reduced to saying (see the comment section):
Again: the reason I’ve become disenchanted with Palin has nothing to do with what’s in her heart, but with what’s in her head. Or rather, what doesn’t appear to be in her head. Somebody sent me a YouTube video today — maybe I should post it — showing that Palin is a killer debater when she’s talking about stuff she understands (e.g., Alaska politics and policies). My concern is that she’s not interested or able to go beyond that. Just because you’re a great state governor doesn’t mean you have what it takes to be a great leader-in-waiting to the most powerful nation on earth.
Here Dreher formally adopts the Parker Principle in a strong form: you can tell more about whether a person will be a good executive at the federal level by how they do in one media interview than in how they did as an executive at a state level.
You can tell they are “disinterested” or unable to go beyond their great state level success based on one fluffed interview.
Is it really a better way to find a good leader to look at how well they do in an interview than to look at how they led?
Dreher apparently prefers a single set of words to a lifetime of successful actions in measuring leadership ability.
Let me suggest to Dreher that just because you cannot give a great Couric interview doesn’t mean . . . much.
None of us who support Governor Palin like the Couric interview. It is worrisome data. However, at the moment it is grossly hasty to abandon a proven reforming governor. I don’t support her for “identity politics,” but because I think she is an interesting leader with a chance to change the national Republican brand.
If it can work out, I am looking forward to a dialog with Dreher (fingers crossed) on the Hugh Hewitt show tomorrow.