A Liberal Who Isn't Underestimating Palin. Or Is He?

The biggest mistake liberals can make with regard to Sarah Palin is to underestimate her.

Neal Gabler, a former film critic on PBS' Sneak Previews and a former panelist on FNC's Fox News Watch, warns his fellow liberals not to take the former Alaska Governor so lightly:

It's week three of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" book tour, and while she has been met with rapture from her fans, she has received a wave of hostility from the mainstream media. David Letterman devoted four minutes of his monologue on publication day to mocking her. New York Times columnist David Brooks called her a joke, and Newsweek referenced "The Sound of Music," asking on its cover "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" Even domestic diva Martha Stewart weighed in, calling her "boring" and "dangerous." Palin is a media punching bag.

Which is exactly the way she likes it. It's not that Palin is a masochist. It's that she realizes how powerful a weapon contemptuousness toward her can be in the political war she will likely be waging in 2012. As commentators revile her, Palin realizes they are also empowering her. Indeed, she is engaged in one of the greatest feats of rope-a-dope in political history. Laugh at her, but you laugh at your peril. She can ride that laughter right into the White House.

Gabler then goes on to liken Palin's political path to that of Richard Nixon. It's an analogy I used over the weekend in Connecticut. Remember when Nixon was beat by Pat Brown in the California gubernatorial race in 1962? You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.

But unlike Nixon, Palin is going to be kicked around whether or not she runs for office. Even Gabler cannot be perceived by his liberal brethren to be fully complimentary towards Palin. Gabler writes, "Palin is playing that same card on the gamble that anti-elitism will trump her own inexperience, incompetence and lack of knowledge." He also claims she aspires to be the "worst and the dumbest" instead "of the best and the brightest." In telling liberals they should not underestimate Palin, Gabler proceeds to underestimate Palin.

Liberals just can't help themselves when it comes to Palin and that will be their undoing.