Peggy Noonan and Maureen Dowd have Sarah Palin for lunch

I read two fiercely written, and very different, critiques of Sarah Palin just now, particularly about the Alaska governor's decision to quit her term early. 

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wrote a column this week in the voice of Palin, jotting some diary entries, and pretty much nails Palin's peculiar sense of syntax:

It’s the same old double standard. I am not one of those who would whine and cuss. It’s just not how I’m wired!!! But the minute I start to whine and cuss, the mainstream media totally misunderstands my verbiage and the combination of things that brought me to this place of knowing. And I know that I know that I know those crappy bloggers will put out more confliction stories.

I keep explaining what impacted me, but everyone seems more confused and ironic than ever. What is it about average, hard-working Americans like me that Americans can’t understand?

In today's Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan urges fellow Republicans to let go of what she calls a Palin myth. She doesn't mince words, either:

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.

Click on the links above for the full texts.