The day after the Palin pick, a friend emailed to ask my opinion. I offered a mixed review: The political savvy was indisputable. Obama had fallen below the fold and the country was buzzing about the caribou hunter in peep-toe pumps. Her instincts seemed good, but her resume looked thin. Was she as ready as McCain was desperate? Weren’t there more important qualifications than sex? My correspondent shot back an impassioned defense. He was already calling her “Sarah.” I countered. We went a few more rounds before he returned a single line. “I just like her, OK?”

Game, set, match. That will sway the election far more than the finer points of healthcare policy.

So what if she can’t explain how the Fed works in 15 seconds or name Kalugistan’s deputy assistant minister for water treatment? After eight years of Cheney’s shadow presidency, did we really want Pawlenty elbowing in with his Sam’s Club cure-all or Lieberman looking to exorcise his Iran lust? Might it not be refreshing to have the vice presidency resized to its Constitutional dimensions: he (she) “shall be president of the Senate” and wait patiently for the worst. Full stop. That leaves lots of time for something Palin seems uniquely qualified to do: begin repairing America’s global standing by serving as a winning envoy. Let the rest of the world “just like her” too.

The cult of Sarah sweeping the conservative grassroots insists that she’s perfectly qualified for the presidency—that only snobs privilege Harvard Law over Idaho State’s poli-sci program and that running a state close to Russia conveys foreign-policy depth. That misses the point, not to mention the truth.

Our current vice president came with more experience than most presidents and felt compelled to put it to use. Signing Eagle Scout commendations from the Naval Observatory does far less for the ego than hunkering down in an undisclosed location to ghostwrite a war plan–and we all know how that turned out. His de facto presidency proved far more damaging than a Palin default would be, provided her inexperience conveys enough modesty to keep her from grand schemes and global agendas.