Sarah

"Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion -- I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

So declared Governor Sarah Palin, Republican of Alaska, at her party's 2008 national convention in St. Paul. As we all know, she didn't move to Washington at all.

This article in The New York Times describes the aftermath of her ticket's defeat, and confirms that, whether she has sought it or not, she has not obtained the approval of eastern reporters.

The timing of this article is interesting, coming immediately after a much more favorable portrayal, in that same publication, of one of Palin's fellow Republican governors, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

One might have thought that the Times would consider any one Republican presidential hopeful just as evil as any other. But now I wonder whether they're trying to manipulate the G.O.P. campaign in favor of a candidate more palatable to them.

If so, I agree with their point of view. I am not a Palin supporter. Her presence on the Republican ticket last year was one of the major reasons why I voted Democratic for president for the first time in decades.

No Republican can gain national support in that party, by completely divorcing her- or himself from the religious right. But I fear that Palin leans a bit too far in that direction. I don't want a president who might think that Earth is only 6,000 years old, thereby ignoring the first 4,499,994,000 years of terrestrial history.

Pawlenty strikes me as the sort of Republican who can follow Ronald Reagan's example of keeping disparate factions of his party's coalition together, without furthering some of the more extreme positions of certain factions within that coalition.