Michael Barone is so good when he writes about politics that he makes my teeth ache. Admittedly a wrote a fairly bad book about the "Revolution of 1688", but I am prepared to forgive him for casual blogasides like this.

Way back in April, Barone summarized the Democratic primary by saying it was "Academics vs. Jacksonians". At the time I didn't think it was the most accurate summary of the primary, but a potential preview of the election to come. With Sarah Palin's emergence onto the Republican ticket, I know it is.