Palin, Mencken and Us

Michelle Goldberg opines on Obama and Palin and what their candidacies say about the American electorate, reinforcing a theme I plan to hammer home regularly here at AABW:

After the debacle of the last few years, it seemed that the country might have finally figured out that there are more important qualities in a leader than the appearance of glib conviviality. One of the things that has been so thrilling about Obama's high-toned approach to politics has been the way he has begun to disprove the axiom often attributed to H.L. Mencken: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Obama's campaign has been a gamble that Mencken was wrong. McCain's has been a bet that he was right.