The Thin Line Between Charm and Smarm  David Seaton points out
that people like me (rational, debonair, immoderately well-
informed, and utterly cosmopolitan when it comes to cheese
selection) are irrelevant when it comes to the voodoo spell
Sarah Palin exerts on her undead believers.  Many commentators,
while admitting that Sarah Palin is attractive and charismatic,
quickly discount her because little that she says will stand up
to even the most cursory examination of its sense or nonsense.
They fail to realize that this mixture of charisma and
incoherence is precisely her most powerful political tool.  They
fail to realize that mindless energy combined with charisma, the
"just do it", is exactly what distinguishes and empowers
"fascism", a word which most Americans throw around with
enormous imprecision until it has become virtually meaningless.
Thoughtful progressives have trouble understanding that it is
precisely this mindlessness vitalist energy, which Sarah Palin
incarnates, that the ultra-right celeb