Sarah's rapture

There have been a few -- too few -- opportunities to see Sarah Palin in her natural habitat. A couple were presented last week by Jon Stewart, possibly lifted from UTube, but I can't find them, now.

One that disturbs most profoundly was captured when Palin answered a question about whether she had seen the second debate between Obama and McCain. She wrinkled her nose in what would otherwise be an expression of pain, tossed back her head with her eyes closed and said McCain "did awsome."

This mannerism, "rapture rhetoric," is not uncommon among elements of the right. It is a form of communication not unlike "gangsta speak" of ghetto Blacks. The painful expression indicates total emotional capitulation. It communicates a context more revealing than the words themselves.

We have seen this in a few of Palin's other displays. When she prepares a "gotcha," she tips her head to one side and wrinkles her nose and pretends with a look of disgust to ask a question. She is really making a "holier-than-thou" accusation. She looks and sounds like the middle school girl too popular to ever be wrong.

This is what her handlers (seasoned Bush professionals) are hiding. And for good reason. They know if the world were to see this woman as she is, there would be great dismay about the judgement of John McCain, an old man who has had cancer, for his choice of who to put next in line as president.