America is losing its head

In this up-is-down world of politics, it would appear that Sarah Palin and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer have sipped from the same formula for success. Be authentic, even if you have to fake it.

How do they do that? By getting tongue-tied, mangling the facts and making stuff up! This makes them just like family and friends, who are precisely the people you want leading the country.

Palin’s gaffes and misadventures in knowledge recital are well-known, but she has nothing on Gov. Brewer, whose opening non-statement in a recent Arizona gubernatorial debate might be the single most cringe-inducing moment I’ve ever watched.

There are opening statements in debates? Who knew? Definitely not Brewer. About 30 seconds into her monologue, a clearly terrified Brewer just … stops … speaking. She looks down at a notepad, then looks up. Still, nothing. Then some nervous laughter, and 10 excruciating seconds later: “We have did so much for Arizona.”

I’m not a fan, but I felt sorry for her. Who among us hasn’t frozen during public speaking? I have did that before. This just shows that she’s authentic. She’s just like us.

Before the debate, Brewer was up by 19 points in the race, according to the Rasmussen Poll. Afterward, she increased her lead to 22 points. There’s your path to success, Mr. Smarty Pants President. Stop with the perfect locution and calm delivery.

Elitist: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” (FDR)

Authentic: “Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded.” (Gov. Brewer, but recently recanted)

Elitist: “I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.” (Obama)

Authentic: “It feels like a stab in the heart to collectively Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.” (Palin)

Mock these Real Americans all you want, but you can’t refudiate their popularity.

All thumbs. My one word of advice for President Obama: Twitter. Sarah Palin can launch an entire news cycle with some hastily tapped out comment. Ditch the news conferences and pick up your cell phone, Mr. President. For instance, you delivered that long speech in Cleveland the other day on the economy. Someone carefully crafted it. Someone meticulously edited it. You rehearsed it. Hardly anyone listened to it in its entirety. That’s so 2008.

Next time, thumb it down.

“Econ growin … needs 2 do better.”

“Tax cuts 4 middle class, small biz. Not 4 rich.”

“Shrinkin govt … layin off speechwriters!”

words fail me. Pop “when words fail us” into your search engine and click on the photo gallery depicting the collective sorrow of our friends from around the world after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Tears from Palestinians, Canadians and the British. Flowers from China, Russia and Poland. Candle lightings in Germany, Sweden and Bangladesh.

I consider it a tragedy that this unified outpouring was so quickly squandered. Instead, fear and nativism took hold, and the United States charged into Iraq. When much of the world didn’t follow along, our leaders turned to high school hubris, invoking “freedom fries,” “Old Europe” and other petty sneers. And here we are today, with many Americans ranting about the placement of a mosque and debating the prospect of burning books.

It’s America the Ugly, and it’s a damn shame.

Home of the brave? Perhaps we Americans could contain our propensity for freaking out if we had actually been the victims of large-scale invasions. About 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. It was a horrible time, and I don’t mean to diminish that. But how would we react if the toll were like those in Russia, France, Poland, Great Britain, Italy and other war zones of the 20th century wars? Americans get jumpy at the possibility of future terrorist attacks. We readily surrender civil liberties and allow torture and extraordinary renditions in the name of security. Peddlers of fear never run out of customers. Then we mock other nations for not wanting to engage in warfare.

But just how cocky would we be if we had endured what they have? Given our extended overreaction to the 9/11 attacks, I think we’d struggle to maintain our collective composure.