Jonathan Chait's self-contradiction is revealing

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Writing in The New Republic, Jonathan Chait contradicts himself and exposes one of the left's favorite memes at the same time -- all in the same sentence:

"If economic conditions remain terrible, it's likely that the Republican Party will regain power. 9% unemployment would give even a radioactive figure like Sarah Palin a decent chance to win the presidency, and a double-dip recession would give her a very strong chance of success. This means there's a significant chance that by 2013 the country will be governed by a Republican Party that makes the Bush-era version appear benign by comparison."

But if Gov. Palin is "radioactive," how then could she have a "decent" to "very strong" chance of winning the presidency? Chait's statement is revealing.

He sounds afraid, very afraid. It's not that his fears are unfounded. Chait is well aware that key members of the Obama Administration have been publicly warning that unemployment will remain high, and not just in the short term. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in testimony in front of the House budget Committee earlier this month said that unemployment is expected to remain elevated for a "significant amount of time." Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had said the same thing in April. And Obama's very own puppet master George Soros was quoted in December as saying that unemployment will remain high for years to come.

Also, what is "radioactive" to the relatively small minority of American leftists is benign to the majority of Americans. Any public figure who does not conform to the radical leftist agenda is "radioactive" -- if only to radical leftists. But judging from the free fall indicated by every public opinion poll recently, the liberal policies being pursued by the president and the Democrat-controlled Congress have triggered the Geiger counters of the American electorate, and they are running away from the fallout as fast as they can. First it was the independents who were overcome by buyers' remorse over the votes they has cast in 2008 for Hope and Change. They were closely followed by the Vichy Republicans, and now a newly-released poll of Pennsylvania Republicans shows Sarah Palin not only the overall leader for 2012, but at the top of the list of both conservative and liberal elements of the GOP.

We believe Gov. Palin's endorsements of a few moderate Republicans, sprinkled as they are among the much greater majority of conservative candidates who have received her blessing, are beginning to bear some fruit. They may not have set well with the absolutists on the far right, but they have helped to broaden her appeal significantly. One does not win the White House solely on appeals to the left or the right. Ronald Reagan proved that conservatives win when they make conservative principles make sense to the broader spectrum of American voters. Despite the left's worst efforts to define her as a far right winger, Sarah Palin is breaking through that false narrative to demonstrate that her common sense brand of conservatism shares common ground with the concerns of a growing share of the U.S. electorate in these tough times. Like Reagan, she remains optimistic about an American future in which that America returns to Reagan's shining city on a hill. And that is precisely where Sarah Palin is leading it.

- JP