The Oklahoman: Palin, Tea party movement should be taken seriously

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In an editorial published in Monday's The Oklahoman, that newspaper's editors say that Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement should be taken seriously:

Better than anyone else right now, Palin represents a significant, perhaps under-polled, demographic, one that’s less ideological than it is angry with the trend in Washington the past year — dramatically manifest last month in Massachusetts.

Palin has a leg up on tapping into it. "I do want to be a voice for some common-sense solutions,” she said. "I’m never going to pretend like I know more than the next person. I’m not going to pretend to be an elitist. In fact, I’m going to fight the elitist, because for too often and for too long now, I think the elitists have tried to make people like me and people in the heartland of America feel like we just don’t get it, and big government’s just going to have to take care of us.”

That, [columnist David] Broder noted, shows "she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has used when running against ‘the political establishment.’” It’s political rocket fuel — enriched even more when the White House press secretary ridicules her for writing crib notes on her palm.

Careful. There’s an undercurrent in the country for strong but limited government that’s more frugal, works better and listens. Palin gives it prominent voice, and the Tea Partiers give it legs — both hard to dismiss.

Read the original Oklahoman editorial unabridged here.

- JP