balancing and hypocrisy
I’m kind of new to this “politics” thing, but I think I may risk a comment.
It seems to me that both presidential candidates have done something rather common: each, having staked out a campaign core identity, has now picked a running mate to help him with voters who might be skeptical of that core identity. Obama, whose lack of experience scares some voters, gets Biden to cover that for him. McCain, who is treated with suspicion by many women voters and by Christian conservatives, selects a woman who is also a Christian conservative. This is the old “balancing the ticket” idea, and most presidential candidates — one of the most notable exceptions being Bill Clinton — seem to go for it.
But in this particular race this familiar tactic is creating some interesting dynamics. This our friend Freddie, in response to Noah’s recent post, comments: “I thought that the rank hypocrisy of this nomination would be called out by my favorite Republican bloggers. Every one of Obama’s weaknesses, as identified by conservatives and blasted for over a year, are to be found in Sarah Palin. People who have laughed at, ridiculed and vilified Barack Obama for ages now turn around and apply absolutely none of the same attacks on Palin than they have applied to Obama.”
Well, that’s one way to look at it. But I think if Freddie were to apply the same standard to Obama he’d have to find him wanting as well. A candidate who claims to bring a breath of fresh air, to get beyond Washington’s business as usual, to transcend partisan politics, selects as his running mate a man who is virtually a poster child for partisan politics and Washington business as usual. At least Palin’s stance as a reformer and maverick matches the McCain self-presentation, and in that sense she reinforces one of his key messages. Obama’s choice of Biden strikes me as much more out of step with his campaign rhetoric — though, as we heard last night, not with his substantive policies, which are, as Rod Dreher has shown, pretty much indistinguishable from those of other recent Democratic presidential candidates.
I guess the question is: when does “balancing the ticket” become “rank hypocrisy”? If McCain’s choice is hypocritical, then it seems to me that you’d have to say that Obama’s is too. To me, insofar as there is hypocrisy involved it is the everyday hypocrisy that seems endemic to politics. Each presidential candidate is using the VP selection to make himself more attractive to people who might not otherwise vote for him. Did we really expect them to do anything else?
Just to be clear, I wrote this several hours before I posted that comment.
http://lhote.blogspot.com/2008/08/giving-in-giving-up-giving-in.html
— Freddie · Aug 29, 11:29 PM · #
Biden is unlikely to factor much in Obama’s inner circle. And he was mostly chosen for his credentials on foreign policy not because he’s a known Beltway fixer. McCain picked somebody who stands a good chance of succeeding him as President. And he picked someone who appears even less qualified than Obama. That makes the “Is He Ready To Lead?” ads really stick in the craw.
— Ali Choudhury · Aug 29, 11:37 PM · #
I suppose it would have been smarter to make clear, as I did in my post from this morning, that I’m as disappointed and angry at the Biden choice as I am at the Palin choice, and that my dismay is with the political system as a whole. But this is a conservative blog, you know?
— Freddie · Aug 29, 11:41 PM · #
Ah, sorry I didn’t see that, Freddie! — I could just have quoted you instead of writing all those words all by myself. You got there first.
I guess this is “a conservative blog,” in a way — in a funky revisionist quasi-libertarian kind of way — though a lot of other conservative blogs would deny us the honor of that adjective. But then, that’s true of every conservative blog, isn’t it? Anyway, I never quite know what my co-bloggers are going to say, which is one reason I like hanging out here.
— Alan Jacobs · Aug 30, 12:07 AM · #
Sarah Palin is the Stepford Wife of a decrepit, debilitated republican party.
She has ZERO credability to be CinC.
Mccain picked her to balance his ticket.
As a woman, i find her entirely creepy.
She reminds me of the FLDS breederbots.
STEPFORD BARBIE FOR PRESIDENT
— matoko_chan · Aug 30, 12:27 AM · #
A candidate who claims to bring a breath of fresh air, to get beyond Washington’s business as usual, to transcend partisan politics, selects as his running mate a man who is virtually a poster child for partisan politics and Washington business as usual.
Presumably the post-partisan grand conciliator that Obama portrays himself to be is obligated to work with and seriously consider the advice of people unlike himself. Yeah, there is something of a tension here, but it’s one that has existed for far longer than his choice of Biden as VP.
We toss around the term “post-partisan”, but there are multiple forms this can take. It could take the form of McCain’s last-honest-man-in-the-world act, in which everyone who disagrees with him on any issue is corrupt at best, unpatriotic at worst—even if you’ve got the position he took last year. Liberals, conservatives—he’s hated all our guts at one point or another.
Or it could take the opposite approach. “My dreams don’t have to come at the expense of your dreams”.
“The drug and insurance companies will have a seat at the table, but they won’t get to buy every seat”.
Or from the last speech, “But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes.”
Obama promised to reform our politics. But he never promised to throw the bums out. He’s basically promising to seek Pareto optimal compromises (sure, with a liberal slant), while toning down the cultural war by respecting the other side. Yes, I do think this is something new—something orthogonal to the left/right divide—that Gore and Kerry didn’t offer and Dreher missed.
Biden himself may not embody Obama-style smiley face post-partisanship, but Obama’s willingness to work with Biden while respecting McCain (reciprocated or not) does.
— Consumatopia · Aug 30, 03:43 AM · #
Obama promised to reform our politics. But he never promised to throw the bums out. He’s basically promising to seek Pareto optimal compromises (sure, with a liberal slant), while toning down the cultural war by respecting the other side. Yes, I do think this is something new—something orthogonal to the left/right divide—that Gore and Kerry didn’t offer and Dreher missed.
That’s a good point, C-topia.
— Alan Jacobs · Aug 30, 04:53 PM · #