Darrell Delamaide: How Governor Palin Dominates The Political Narrative

Washington, DC — Sarah Palin continues to dominate the political agenda. The former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate is driving our national discourse in the “lamestream” media, the blogosphere, social networks and, above all, in the Republican Party.

Palin comes out with a new, instantly bestselling book celebrating American exceptionalism, and every Republican who hopes for a future in national politics is talking about nothing but exceptionalism. Liberal bloggers...are talking about what Sarah Palin wants to talk about — not about climate change, immigration reform or even unemployment.

Palin preached American exceptionalism — the notion that this country is not only special, but the greatest country that ever existed on the planet — during the 2008 campaign, and forced other Republican presidential hopefuls to toe the exceptionalism line.

So Mitt Romney advocated American exceptionalism in his book last May....Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, another Republican, apparently is toying with throwing his hat in the ring because he gave a speech this week outside Washington or his district, in Detroit. He mentioned “exceptionalism” no fewer than seven times as something we need to “renew.” […]

Obama’s mistake was in his politically tone-deaf fashion to say he believes in American exceptionalism — just the way the British believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. Exceptionalism is the rule, not the exception, get it? We’re not so special […]

She is in every respect the anti-Obama: he is black, she is white; he is male, she is female; he is cerebral, she is emotional. She doesn’t want change, because America is already great. So she doesn’t need hope. She is the America we don’t have to wait for — just recognize.

Palin is in fact using Obama’s playbook against him. She is, as her supporters often noted in the 2008 campaign, no less qualified to be president than he is (though we might ask now if we really want to go that route again). […]

We’ll see. In the meantime, it seems that Palin — not Obama, not incoming House Speaker John Boehner, not any of the political dwarves who may contest the 2012 Republican presidential nomination along with this exceptional Snow White — will be writing our political narrative.

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Market Watch: How Palin dominates the political narrative By Darrell Delamaide