And don’t miss Tony Blankley’s wonderful send-up of the supposed conservatives (Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, Chris Buckley, David Frum and Kathleen Parker) who have dissed Sarah Palin. In probing their defections, Palin, Blankley finds reason to believe that conservatism is (must be) on the brink of redefinition:
“I think that Peggy may have unconsciously touched on what really is going on here when she accuses Palin — who is attracting crowds as big, if not bigger than any Reagan ever drew — of being a ‘follower not a leader.’
“Peggy’s unconscious fear may be that it will be precisely Sarah Palin (and others like her) who will be among the leaders of the about-to-be-reborn conservative movement. I suspect that the conservative movement we start rebuilding on the ashes of Nov. 4 (even if McCain wins) will have little use for overwritten, over-delicate commentary. The new movement will be plain-spoken and socially networked up from the Interneted streets, suburbs and small towns of America. It certainly will not listen very attentively to those conservatives who idolatrize Obama and collaborate in heralding his arrival. They may call their commentary “honesty.” I would call it — at the minimum — blindness.
”The new conservative movement will be facing a political opponent that will reveal itself soon to be both multiculturalist and Eurosocialist. We will be engaged in a struggle to the political death for the soul of the country. As I did at the beginning of and throughout the Buckley/Goldwater/Reagan/Gingrich conservative movement, I will try to lend my hand. I certainly will do what I can to make it a big-tent conservative movement. But just as it does in every great cause, one question.”