NO PITY.

Rebecca Traister:

I don't want to be played by the girl-strings anymore. Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness. It's a disservice to minority populations of every stripe whose place in the political spectrum has been unfairly spotlighted as mere tokenism; it is a disservice to women throughout this country who have gone from watching a woman who -- love her or hate her -- was able to show us what female leadership could look like to squirming in front of their televisions as they watch the woman sent to replace her struggle to string a complete sentence together.

What's interesting -- even gratifying -- is that Palin's collapse is occurring for the right reasons. She's unprepared. That's different than being inexperienced. An inexperienced candidate could nevertheless have spent the past 20 years following American government closely, and roared onto the world stage with as much or more demonstrable understanding as many aging senators. An inexperienced candidate could still have been knowledgeable. But Palin was not knowledgeable. Worse, she was proudly incurious. The fact that she didn't know much about governance or the issues that faced the country was a supposed mark of authenticity. Real Americans don't know about Supreme Court cases either. But it turns out that these same "Real Americans" want leaders with at least a base level understanding of the world around them, and the capacity to answer soft questions from cautious interviewers with some level of skill and confidence.I'm one of those who thinks Palin cannot possibly continue doing this badly, and will likely perform adequately on Thursday. Adequately, in this case, is not a very high bar to pass. But I doubt that will be enough to rescue her selection in the eyes of the country. Fundamentally, there's great justice in Palin's arc. She was chosen because the McCain campaign did not respect the electorate's judgment or seriousness about the gravity of the moment. She was sold as the perfect answer to the most parochial and incurious instincts of the country. And she proved that, in both cases, the McCain campaign had underestimated, and frankly insulted, the very people they meant to lead.