Palin changed game for worse

At some point while watching HBOs absolutely smashing (and terrifying) movie Game Change, it occurred to me that Sarah Palin has ruined America. With her selection as John McCains running mate, American politics lost its way and maybe its mind as well.

The movie portrays Palin as an ignoramus. She did not know that North and South Korea are different countries. She seemed not to have heard of the Federal Reserve. She thought America went to war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein, not al-Qaeda, had attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Not only did she know little, but she was supremely smug in her ignorance.

At the same time, she was a liar. In the movie, she was called exactly that by McCains campaign chief, Steve Schmidt, who came to realize, a bit late in the game, that one of Palins great talents was to deny the truth.

Palin objects to this characterization, but the movie has been endorsed by too many of Palins top campaign aides to put its veracity in doubt.

All this is now history, I want to say. But then I must instantly correct myself. Apres Palin has come a deluge of dysfunctional presidential candidates. They do not lie with quite the conviction of Palin, but they are sometimes her match in ignorance. As with Palin, it seemed hardly to matter. Herman Cain for a while was a front-runner. He had a nonsensical tax plan, zero knowledge of foreign affairs and had never held elective office. Yet, for a brief but terrifying moment, many Republicans were saying he should be the next president of the United States.

Michele Bachmann told a touching fib about vaccinations, and Rick Perry did not know squat about who governs Turkey, a NATO ally and a vitally important Middle East power.

Rick Santorum knows his stuff, but his stuff includes a wild denunciation of John F. Kennedys famous speech about the proper role of religion in public life and a characterization of President Barack Obama as a snob for extolling the value of college. Newt Gingrich has the wattage to ! be presi dent, but so does Hannibal Lecter, if you get my drift. As for Ron Paul, he appears to be running for president of some theme park.

I have excluded Mitt Romney from my list of fools and knaves. (He has other problems.) But there once was a time when Romney would not have stood out as the only candidate who knew something about the issues that confront a president.

Since Palin, though, ignorance has become more than bliss. Its now an attribute, an entire platform: Vote for me, I know nothing and hate the same things you do.

So far, the Palin effect has been limited to the GOP. Surely, though, there lurks potential Democratic candidates who have taken note. Experience, knowledge, accomplishment these no longer may matter. They will come out proclaiming a hatred of all things Washington, including compromise.

The movie had it right. Sarah Palin changed the game.

Richard Cohens nationally syndicated column appears regularly in Voices.