Last night almost broke me.

I don't address my personal political viewpoints very often on this blog, for a couple of reasons. One, I am too excitable and easily angered to make salient or even humorous commentary about it. Two, there are not too many people who stumble on this blog blindly, and I'm pretty sure all of my regular readers (all seven of you!) are well familiar with my idealogical stances. Three, there are lots and lots of writers out there doing just this very thing far more eloquently and, frankly, with a good deal more civility than I ever could. I tend to degenerate into foul language and insult slinging. And foaming. Mouth foaming.

Anyway, Governor Sarah Palin's speech to the Republican National Convention and the subsequent praise lavished on her by pundits and people on the street alike has me lathered me up more thoroughly than ever before. Rather than spitting vitriol and becrying the eventual fate of this country, I want to focus on something I can speak to with some authority:

This woman has been styled.

Here is her official state portrait:This is how she often looks. A determined and not altogether pleasant smile glued on her aggressively made-up face, her hair piled up on top of her head to add height, her suit (always a skirt. ALWAYS) an eye-catching primary color, most usually bright red. She is always advancing in a frame, always coming at the viewer.
This is her Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention. Her signature hairstyle, which has cynically been called bulletproof, is softer, as is her make-up. I have never seen her wear a neutral, certainly not oatmeal. It is meant to fade, to recede. Someone has gone to great lengths to make her appear younger, softer, more approachable and less intimidatingly Tracy Flick-like. There are overtones of Jackie Kennedy her collar and pearls, in the sweep of her bangs and the tilt of her brows. This is more deliberate misdirection. She is not an icon of grace and elegance; she is a ruthless politician elevated to lofty heights beyond her abilities by a desperate and reaching GOP. For once, I can say with all honesty that I refuse to fall prey to a pretty face.