@ fuster:
…you may have a point… the answer could depend on whether you consider numbingly stupid stupider than munificently stupid.

@ CK MacLeod:
Numbingly stupid as this one was, what of the Barry White vid ?

The Mother and Child Re-union Tour ?

It’s interesting that the Runner’s World pictorial was published during the brief period when Palin seemed to be aiming for a return to normalcy – perhaps hoping that she could go back to simply being governor again, mend fences with political opponents, build quietly to any future campaigns, and so on. The pictorial said “don’t worry, look at me, I’m fine, I’m better than fine.”

Months later, we can read different things into it, but it clearly wasn’t part of the “radio silence/TV invisibility” that has helped set us all up for Palinmania 2: The Return of Sarah!!!

@ fuster:
Congratulations – that may have been the very worst YouTube posted on this site so far.

Don’t worry, CKM, it hasn’t soured me on Palin.

Don’t worry about worrying me! I’m not campaigning or organizing for her. I just honestly find what she represents far preferable to what her competitors and opponents represent.

As I’ve said before, I think we may need Basil the First (the dourly passionless, much unloved leader who, at least in Norwich’s telling, re-organized the empire’s finances and administration and extended its life by a couple of centuries) more than we need Joan of Arc, but our political culture seems to require that we seek both in the same person.

Of course, most people (possibly not including Sully) would put in our favor the fact that we rely more on elections and peaceful transfer of power than on conspiracy and assassination – so there’s that!

@ J.E. Dyer:
Here. I’ve found the pose that’s confusing you about 25seconds into the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu13EONrjSQ&feature=related

It seems that there’s an idea of Obama to fit every loon.

@ Sully:

Sounds like Margaret Thatcher is your idea of a woman with gravitas, Sully.

She certainly has far more of it than OSlash.

Interestingly, the pose for Runners World is the main thing I’ve seen Palin do that I wouldn’t consider a wise political move. There was a way to do it that didn’t invoke images inappropriate to a governor’s gravitas: a candid snap with Todd, the two of them in workout gear getting ready to run… a candid during a run… etc. The pose with the props comes off just a shade on the “lightweight” side though.

I remember seeing workout photos of Condi Rice in the first months of Bush’s presidency. Very toned, trim, attractive lady, but you didn’t see her striking poses with her long legs — you saw her pounding the weights on a Nautilus machine or in mid-run on a treadmill.

Don’t worry, CKM, it hasn’t soured me on Palin. But all the attention given the photo, and the license people derive from it to get silly, are good reasons not to have done it quite that way. Palin’s smart and cool, though; I don’t think it will hold her back, whatever she wants to do.

@ J.E. Dyer:

That is a very acute observation. And it may explain part of why I’m uneasy with Sarah Palin as presidential material.

As vice presidential candidate she was, as all are, an ornament to and cheerleader for the presidential candidate. As a result I could accept her in that role as a sexy woman who was also a reasonably astute up and coming politician.

If she wants to be a presidential candidate she has to portray as a serious politician with gravitas who happens to be a woman. But she’s still portraying herself more as a cheerleader than as a serious politician. It’s not that she can’t be sexy, but rather that she must be serious first and she must guard her gravitas, which she did not do when she posed for Runners World.

You’re also right on the money that President Obama could pose like that and make it work even today based on the way he presented himself even in his last speech to congress. Maybe gravitas is simply no longer a requirement up at the top of the presidential job description along with “Physical and mental ability to maintain calm and push whatever buttons are necessary even while being hustled about by security people.”

Maybe it works just for you, Dyer.

Here’s something to think about.

Try this mental exercise. Imagine John Kerry posing in this manner — in running shorts, slightly turned with his left leg gracefully bent, arms akimbo, cheerleader smile on his face.

Grotesque, huh?

Imagine Al Gore doing it. Bill Clinton. Michael Dukakis. Walter Mondale. Jimmy Carter.

OK, now imagine Barack Obama in this pose. Scary, right? Because it works. He’d be more of a natural at it than Michelle.

And there you have it. The Democratic Party, 2009.