To the media: Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she\u2019s the most important conservative politician in America. Stop pretending that she has a plausible path to the presidency in 2012. (She doesn\u2019t.) Stop suggesting that she\u2019s the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (She isn\u2019t.) And every time you\u2019re tempted to parse her tweets for some secret code or crucial dog whistle, stop and think,\u00a0this woman has fewer Twitter followers than Ben Stiller<\/em>, and then go write about something else instead.<\/p>\nTo Palin: You were an actual politician once (remember that?), but you\u2019re becoming the kind of caricature that your enemies have always tried to make of you. So maybe it\u2019s time to turn off your iPad for a while, and take a break from Facebook and Fox News. The world won\u2019t end if you don\u2019t respond to every criticism, and you might even win a few more admirers if you cultivated a lighter touch and a more above-the-fray persona. Oh, and when that reality-TV producer sends you a pitch for \u201cSarah Plus Five Plus Kate Plus Eight,\u201d\u00a0just say no<\/em>.<\/p>\nBreaking up is hard to do, of course. But for the majority of Americans who are neither Palinoiacs nor Palinistas, here\u2019s the good news: If the press (including this columnist!) and Sarah Palin can\u2019t quit each other, you can still quit us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From NYTimes: To the media: Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she\u2019s the most important conservative politician in America. Stop pretending that she has a plausible path to the presidency in 2012. (She doesn\u2019t.) Stop suggesting that she\u2019s the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (She isn\u2019t.) And every time you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Ross Douthat on Sarah Palin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From NYTimes: To the media: Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she\u2019s the most important conservative politician in America. Stop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/01\/19\/ross-douthat-on-sarah-palin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ross Douthat on Sarah Palin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From NYTimes: To the media: Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she\u2019s the most important conservative politician in America. 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