Heather Robinson

Anderson Cooper’s discussion tonight with Bill Bennet and James Carville on CNN about Sarah Palin’s belated effort to defend herself from the media’s savaging her revealed something about Mrs. Palin.

Narrating that Mrs. Palin had taken issue with the way Katie Couric and Tina Fey expolited her to advance their careers, Mr. Cooper sounded almost incredulous.

“What’s her plan?” he asked, in reference to Palin, of the two guest commentators, who sputtered something or other and then comfortably concluded in agreement that both Palin and the media are to blame, they for going overboard and she for continuing to talk about it. So they should knock it off and she should just shut up.

Not so fast, boys. First of all, this woman endured several months of a media onslaught so circus-like as to be a highly inappropriate, embarrassing treatment of a woman of Palin’s accomplishments. She was also subject to widespread, malicious attacks in the blogosphere targeting her family with scurrilous rumors. And perhaps worst of all, she seems to have been the victim of gotcha journalism on the part of Couric, who did her darndest to put Palin on the defensive.

Yes, Palin is a public figure who was vying to fill the second-highest office in the country and deserved tough scrutiny. But what she got from the “liberal” media–and, as the hysteria spread, from those who jumped unquestioningly into the wave–was something more akin to a gang rape. How else to explain what came to be the conventional wisdom that Palin was “stupid” and “incompetent” despite her great success as governor of Alaska? She gave a couple lousy interviews (and again I suspect the Couric one was manipulated), but at any rate, no impartial observer, knowing her record of achievement, would ever have concluded she was stupid. Perhaps no egghead intellectual, but not stupid. It was a case of foolish groupthink initiated by the media. And there was something ugly in the glee many people, including women, seemed to take in denigrating Palin. Really ugly.

My take on her “plan” is that it’s self-defense. Is it not possible she is defending herself and, most importantly, her family, because she is moved to do so for the sake of justice, and protection of those she loves?

My take is Mrs. Palin is speaking out on behalf of herself and her family because she is a righteous person and does not tolerate in silence the abuse of anyone, including herself. Her only mistake was letting the powerful men who sought to handle her convince her to supress her moral instincts and be a punching bag for as long as she did. The good news is, all the attacks on her reveal the tendency of her critics to underestimate her–just one more weapon in this beautiful, intelligent, and talented politician’s arsenal.

Make way for Sarah.