NY Sun: Palin Smarter than Congress and Editors?

The New York Sun:

"The question that that we find ourselves thinking about is how was Mrs. Palin able to see this issue when others weren’t. Is she just smarter than the editors and the Congress? Or does she just have more life experience? Is it that her religion gives her a framework for learning all this stuff? Or is it that her sensitivity was heightened by making of her own decision to bring Trig into the world? Or is it something about the Alaskan spirit?"

1. on Obamacare requiring end of life "counseling"

"One of the questions raised by the news that the Obama administration is going to use regulation rather than legislation to bring in the so-called “death panels” as part of Obamacare is how it happened that this was first foreseen not by the newspapers or the members of Congress but by Governor Palin. Confirmation of Mrs. Palin’s scoop was brought in by the New York Times in a dispatch issued Christmas day, more than a year after Mrs. Palin issued her warning about Obamacare leading to government involvement in end-of-life issues."
[emphasis added]

2. on West Bank settlements and collapsing value of the dollar:

"It’s enough that she was just ahead of the others, and the point is one to mark. She has become, at a relatively young age and by whatever means, a savvy woman. We noticed it, say, when she suggested the best way to handle the question of the West Bank settlements was to let the Israelis decide, a policy the administration is now following. We noticed it when she went to Hong Kong and warned about the collapse in the value of the dollar and spoke of the importance of gold."
[emphasis added]

3. on quantitative easing; drilling onshore rather than offshore

"It was apparent when she dove in before other politicians and the intelligentsia and warned about the dangers of the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing. And when, in advance of the BP oil-spill disaster, she’d been campaigning to develop our onshore energy resources. And when she began branding as her own the idea of commonsense, conservative constitutionalism — a year before a resurgent GOP is preparing to open the 112th Congress with a reading of the entire text of the Constitution."
[emphasis added]

4. a warning, or "scoop", is only effective when it underscores the importance of the issue

"No doubt it will be said that other politicians were onto these issue long before the former governor of Alaska elevated them to the national debate. But the observation only underscores Mrs. Palin’s ability. It may be that it’s her education in journalism, in which she holds a degree from the University of Idaho. Or just the fact that she’s on her game. But she understands one of journalism’s great principles, which turns out to be as true of politicians as it is of newspapermen. It’s not a scoop until it’s played like a scoop."

Precisely. And the mark not only of a good politician or journalist, but of the kind of effective leader needed to take a nation through difficult times.

H/T Ian Lazaran