A Diane Arbusian Moment

Diane Arbus is famous for her photographs of freaks. Stan Honda of AFP-Getty Images was channeling Arbus in this photo of Palin with Kissinger.

"Rising up from a source deep in my subconscious. I saw a woman fully aware that she was out of her league, scared out of her wits, hanging on for dear life. I saw this in the sag of her back in her serious black suit, in the position of her hands, crossed modestly atop her knees, and in that 'Mad Men'-era updo, ever unchanging, like a good luck charm."

-- from "Poor Sarah," by Judith Warner in the New York Times, September 25, 2008.