It wasn't just the wink, although that's part of it. Last night, for the first time, I got it about Sarah Palin. Last night she wasn't the slightly smug newcomer who threw off more bravado than grace and dissed the media she hadn't even met, and she wasn't the rambling, deer-in-headlights interviewee who was drowningly out of her depth. Those were my impressions of Sarah Palin, and so far, I wasn't charmed.
That changed last night.
I wasn't charmed by Palin, personally — but not without a little effort on my part. I realized last night what I had read and heard and appreciated without quite feeling it: Palin is very likable. She has a nice smile and it comes easily and often. She seems brisk and competent and folksy and down-to-earth. She has great cheekbones and fantastic, shiny hair. It takes a second, but when you think about you realize she's a knockout, but in a fresh and appealing and unthreatening way. And she's a grown woman, but somehow, she manages to be spunky and cute.
Here's what I thought of a few times last night - a moment from the second SNL sketch starring Tina Fey as Palin and Amy Poehler as Katie Couric:
POEHLER (as Couric): Forgive me, Governor Palin, but it seems to me that, when cornered, you become increasingly adorable. Is that fair to say?
FEY (as Palin): I dunno, is it? (smiles sweetly, bats eyelashes, winks, cocks hand under chin, poses prettily, makes cutesy sounds and gestures).
I remembered finding that a jarring note in the sketch, because Palin hadn't seemed all that adorable in the interview, especially as she stumbled to find the word for journalists mocking her. But it turned out that moment foreshadowed the debate, where Palin was adorable almost the whole way through, even when she got off message and rambled just a tad and inched dangerously close to Miss South Carolina territory.