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LOVELY SARAH….Tyler Cowen says lots of peculiar but interesting things. That’s why I like reading him. Today he suggests that, Cleopatra-like, Sarah Palin has a lot of conservative men thinking with their gonads instead of their brains:

Andrew Sullivan is calling Sarah Palin “Rovian.” Maybe, but her first order of business has been to fool the Republican establishment, not the American people….Which narrative do you find more plausible?:

“Lovely Sarah, she’s saying and doing everything we want her to. What a quick learner. How pliable she is. Remember Descartes on tabula rasa?”

“Once John and I are elected, they’ll need me more than I need them.”

The people who are right now the happiest may end up the most concerned. For better or worse, they’re about to lose control of their movement.

This is both peculiar and interesting. But is it right? My own guess is that McCain doesn’t need her at all once the election is over. If he wins in November, Palin will be sent overseas to funerals and into the heartland for occasional speeches to the moral values crowd, and that’s about it. She’ll beaver away on a “special needs portfolio” or some such, while the big boys worry about which country to yell at next.

On the other hand, if John McCain loses, Palin might well be in line to be the GOP’s next star. (Assuming she avoids some kind of career ending catastrophe on the trail, of course.) In other words, if she were really smart and devious, maybe she’d be slyly working to ensure McCain’s defeat, not his victory. So maybe Tyler is right, but just has the wrong timeframe.

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