Stand beside her, and guide her,
Through the night with a watch from a blog…

But first… context. I sometimes forget that not everyone reading my blog is also reading my email, you know? So I should probably say that the two Palin posts, below, are not an endorsement, nor were they intended as such. I’m not registered to vote (…I live in DC), do not plan to vote, and have no idea what I would do if I did plan to vote. I am not planning to try to get you guys to vote for somebody, largely because of the colossal naivete I displayed the last time I tried that.

But I’m still interested in figuring out what Sarah Palin’s deal is, because I do hope that both parties can be reshaped so that neither of them is based on support for radical evil. (And I’m also interested in how the parties may or may not shift on less overwhelming issues, like education reform and free trade.) It would be nice to have someone to vote for, you know, eventually. So while I understand the point Jim Henley is making, it doesn’t answer all of my questions about what Palin will do for the Republican Party–and what it might do to her.

So, for those who do want to know more about her than, “She’s running for VP under John McCain,” here are some good points and links and stuff like that.

The Agitator: Palin (1); not really a reformer?

The Wall Street Journal‘s news section, on her record.

Mark Shea: “In addition, the one sour note of Palin’s speech for me (and it may be a signal that she’s willing to play the same game that McCain has played with Bush war crimes) is this:

‘Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?’

“That’s all she’s got to say about the Bush Administration efforts to make the US into a legal torture regime? Yeah, pretty much.”

Ross Douthat: “Instead of opening new vistas for conservative politics, it reinforced the perception – which is unfair, but not all that unfair – that the only thing John McCain’s GOP has to offer on the domestic front is a big yes to drilling, an end to earmarks, and a big no to Obama’s tax increases. It’s possible that this is enough of a message to win this Presidential election; it’s definitely not enough of a message to rebuild the GOP over the long haul.”

Posts about other stuff forthcoming.