Rove speaks up for Palin

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham most recent column - "The Palin Problem" – lets you know right off that “The Palin Problem” is not the vicious smears and lies hurled at her by so many mainstream journalists, but the governor herself:

Yes, she won the debate by not imploding. But governing requires knowledge, and mindless populism is just that—mindless.

Today, Karl Rove in Newsweek answers Meacham.

Rove tells Newsweek readers:

With respect, Jon misses the principal arguments for Sarah Palin. She is the governor of a state with an $11 billion operating budget, a $1.7 billion capital budget and nearly 29,000 employees; she's got more executive experience than any candidate for president or vice president this year. In Alaska she took on the state political establishment, the incumbent Republican governor and the oil companies.

She's a rising star who accentuates John McCain's maverick strengths and a "hockey mom" who has developed a powerful tie to ordinary voters.

That link isn't itself an argument for Palin. But being able to connect with, and inspire, the public is an asset —not a liability. As for Jon's argument against "everyday Americans" as political leaders, many great presidents have been more average than elitist.

Ronald Reagan, from Eureka College, was a far better leader than Woodrow Wilson, a former president of Princeton. Wilson would have given you 100 Supreme Court opinions he disagreed with, whether you wanted to listen or not. …

Meachem’s column’s here; Rove’s is here.

Note especially in Rove's column what he has to say near its end about what McCain-Palin should do in the next four weeks.