The most destructive strategic errors come from misunderstanding an opponent's position. When Sun Tzu writes about deception in the first chapter of The Art of War, the point is that the easiest way to control an opponent is to control their perceptions. The biggest benefit of the Palin pick as VP is that it plays into all the left's misconceptions about traditional values. Liberal attacks on Palin for being a working mother and having a pregnant unwed daughter are based on mistaken assumption that the right thinks that women shouldn't work and that religious people never make mistakes (or have sex). This may be how conservative religious people are portrayed in the media but that perception is far from reality. In reality, the right's position is simply that a woman who stays home and takes care of her children should not be attacked for that choice and that belief in God helps people aspire to be better than their mistakes.