Crying wolf in Alaska

Matt Lewis has written a soul-baring apology for being an early supporter of Sarah Palin, and he's inspired me to the do same.

I voted for the John McCain and Sarah Palin ticket in 2008. I believed a lot more in voting at that time but despite being a life-long conservative, my previous two presidential votes were for the Green Party and Democratic Party. I wasn't impressed with McCain and told myself I'd see who his vice president pick was before I decided how to vote.

I didn't see her famous Republican National Convention speech, but it certainly excited the base. She played up the every man angle pretty well and came off as genuine. Despite the terrible taste in everyone's mouth following George W. Bush, I thought she had a decent chance of defeating Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

When criticisms started to come out about her from the left, I ignored them. They were the same old cliche remarks I heard about every conservative, that she was dumb and unqualified. I'd heard it a thousand times before. Why bother worrying about it.

Imagine my surprise after the election when reporters kept contacting her to comment on national issues and she kept answering the phone. She ended up proving that her early critics were right.

Granted, a lot of the anti-Palin rhetoric was absurd and came off as just plain mean-spirited, but by the time she resigned as governor it was obvious that Sarah Palin was a terrible choice for leadership and I hadn't bothered looking into her before casting my vote.

I will say there is a lesson here for political critics. When you claim every single political opponent of yours is dumb and evil, your words will lose value and when you need them the most no one will believe you.