At the expense of sounding trite: I never liked Adams or those like him who are painted as "cut from a different cloth". Yes, their archetype may be heinous but this one is different--we are told--and if only we let this one in the rest will follow his/her/its lead and reform and then we can see its all just a big misunderstanding.
Something about this threadbare siren song irks me every time I hear it because it seems invariably once we admit this new-found new-type we must learn of some deep, dark corruption in their past. I never understood the urge to accept Adams anymore than I could understand accept the urge to accept Yassar Arafat, Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chavez or Barack Obama. As soon as they are admitted to polite company they are immediately revealed to not merely be associates of simple tyranny but liars and crooks our for their own personal gain.
I think this is the appeal of Sarah Palin: she is incredibly average. The workaday husband and knocked-up daughter don't diminish her they only make her more average. We don't need heroes, we need average people
