Looking For Leaders In All The Wrong Places

Kathleen Parker is upset that she got yelled at for her positions on the election - particularly her comdenation of Gov. Palin.

She seems disappointingly unable to understand Sarah Palin's appeal to less rarified conservatives. And in the artcle link to above is taking a slightly smug, I-told-you-so attitude.

I am always surprised by intellectual shallowness on the Right as it is so typically a Left failing.

What Parker fails to understand is that she doesn't get free speech coverage exactly. She and all pundits/think tankers/journalists are in a position of Intellectual Leadership. We all have the right to our own opinion but very, very few of us get the sort of megaphone access to an audience that such Intellectual Leaders do.

Such people are in positions of authority and do not always have the luxury of being able to say exactly what they want whenever they want.

The brain-mouth filter has to be in place. Having seen the grass-roots of support for Palin, Parker could have continued the express her doubts about Palin but in a way that the enthusiastic crowds could accept.

But Parker and others decided that they were correct and we were wrong and hammered away at Palin in the best Leftwing tradition.

Then they act wounded when they get a few angry emails.

Get over it. You are in the public eye and help shape conservative opinion. It is a responsibility and a priviledge to be an Intellectual Leader.

And as an Intellectual Leader - like Political Leaders or Business Leaders - you can say what you want but not necessarily how you want to say it. Modulation is part of leadership.

Kathleen Parker is not a leader we need to follow. Gov. Palin, however, will be someone to watch.