UPDATED: THE UGLINESS BEGINS --- The Left's assault begins - but Sarah Palin will be our Jackie Robinson

To set the stage, we first need to travel back to the late 1940's, to the days of "Separate but Equal". Branch Rickey wanted to break the color barrier in the Major Leagues. But to do it he needed someone of extraordinary character; someone who could take the most vile and scurrilous attacks on him without caving to the pressure to explode. Because any other type of man would not have been able to make it to the goal of breaking the color barrier for every Black man. The need was for a man of superhuman character, poise and dignity. Via Wikipedia:

Rickey wanted a man who could restrain himself from responding to the ugliness of the racial hatred that was certain to come. He reminded Robinson that he would face tremendous racial animus, and insisted that he not take the bait and react angrily. Robinson was aghast: "Do you want a player afraid to fight back?" Rickey replied that he needed a Negro player "with the guts not to fight back." Robinson agreed to abide by Rickey's terms for his first year.

In 1946, the Dodgers assigned Jackie Robinson to the Montreal Royals. Jackie proceeded to lead the International League in batting average with a .349 average, and fielding percentage with a 0.985 percentage. That winter he also married Rachel Isum, his former UCLA classmate. Although the season was emotionally arduous for Robinson with the racist abuse he faced during the team's away games, he also deeply appreciated the enthusiastic support by the Montreal fans who followed his performance with intense interest. Because of Jackie's play in 1946, the Dodgers called him up to play for the major league club in 1947. Robinson made his Major League debut on April 15, 1947, playing first base when he went 0 for 3 against the Boston Braves.

Throughout the season, Robinson experienced harassment at the hands of both players and fans. He was verbally abused by both his own teammates and by members of opposing teams. Robinson knew that his presence near or on the playing field would cause resentment from opposing teams and even some his of own teammates. He anticipated that some pitchers would aim pitches at his head and that other players would try to hit, tackle, and even try to push him off the basepaths.

Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The brewing mutiny ended when Dodger management took a stand for Robinson. Manager Leo Durocher informed the team, "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."

When other teams, notably the Cardinals, threatened to strike if Robinson played, NL President Ford Frick let it be known that they would be suspended.

On April 22, 1947, during a game between the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies players called Jackie a "nigger" from their dugout, and yelled that he should "go back to the cotton fields." Rickey would later recall that the Phillies' manager, Ben Chapman, "did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers. When he poured out that string of unconscionable abuse, he solidified and united thirty men." Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler admonished the Phillies and asked Chapman to pose for photographs with Robinson as a conciliatory gesture.

Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who would be a teammate of Robinson's for the better part of a decade, was one of the few players who publicly stood up for Robinson during his rookie season. During the team's first road trip, in Cincinnati, Ohio, during pre-game practice, Robinson was being heckled by fans when Reese, the Dodgers team captain, walked over and put his arm around Robinson in a gesture of support that quieted the fans and has now gained near-legendary status. Reese was once quoted saying about Robinson "You can hate a man for many reasons; color is not one of them." In addition, the Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, who understood the rookie's difficulties considering he himself faced considerable anti-Semitism earlier in his career, made a point of welcoming Robinson to the major leagues. In the October 1948 issue of SPORT magazine, Robinson said he did not expect to see baseball's color barrier fall in his lifetime. "I thought it would take another war," he said.

And the rest, as they say, is history...

Welcome to the 2008 Republican Party.

Here is what Meghan McArdle of The Atlantic had to say earlier today (emphasis mine):

• This woman is an Obama-level political natural. She is a ferociously good speaker, and almost preternaturally composed.

• Sarah Palin is what the McCain camp has badly needed: an attack dog who can be deployed against Obama. She slides the stiletto in without either losing her femininity or coming across as catty, and given that she's married to an eskimo, it's going to be hard to fit her into the narrative of conservative closet racists trying to perpetuate white domination.

• She's going to be a hard act for McCain to follow tonight

• The Democrats are, as my colleague Clive Crooks notes, in trouble. Whatever you think of her as a potential president, she is a politically brilliant choice, and Democrats are going to have a very hard time finding traction to attack her.

Well, the Democrats have a problem. They had a few days of calling her a clueless redneck, a stewardess, a nonentity, and she has hurled that back in their bleeding gums. (If I were Joe Biden, I'd start practising for October 2nd right now.) Even before tonight's speech, they had backed off the "no experience" strategy, because (as the Republicans intended) that was sending shrapnel in Obama's direction. Their line right now is their default mode, that McCain-Palin is four more years of George Bush. But this too is a completely untenable strategy, since the Republican ticket now looks stunningly fresh to voters, as fresh in fact as Obama-Biden. Where they will have to end up is obvious: McCain-Palin is an extreme right-wing ticket. It is a team that will prosecute the culture war against all that is decent and civilized in the United States: that must be the line.

• Many Democratic bloggers are itching to go after this woman for all of her perceived flaws. I understand why, but if they do so, they are very likely to get McCain elected. If I were a Democratic strategist right now, I would be telling the campaign to pretend she doesn't exist. There is simply no way to attack her without alienating the swing voters they need by sending the message: "People like you are idiots who can't be trusted to make important decisions", and also, triggering the social opprobrium that falls on men who say nasty things about women. What can I say? Sometimes sexism works in womens' favor.

But I don't think they can help themselves. The media horses have already left the stable, and it is getting uglier by the hour.

If you look at what is happening today with the relentless attacks on both Palin and her 17-year old daughter (being compared to Brittney Spears on the Hollywood gossip shows, etc.), it is apparent that if Sarah Palin can maintain her poise and dignity--and to resist the temptation to answer every scurrilous charge against her and her family--another very important historic milestone may soon be broken.

We will have a qualified, popular, conservative woman a heartbeat away from being President. And we will have a favorite for the job once John McCain retires.

It will be much tougher on Sarah Palin that it has ever been for any VP nominee in American history--including Thomas Eagleton.

But if she can evoke the spirit of Jackie Robinson; if she can withstand the vileness and the disgraceful MSM attacks on she and her family and maintain her poise, grace, and intellect--then by the end of November we may be able to finally say goodbye to the Left's narrative of Gender Identity Politics forever.

I think she's going to do it. But it is going to get very, very ugly first. Much uglier than it already has been. I think we have not seen anything yet. Brace yourselves. And get ready for a bloody brawl.

UPDATE: It has begun. And this is beneath anything than even I could have fathomed. And it is only the beginning.