Sister Sarah!
Count me as one of the people who was deeply underwhelmed by Obama’s speech last night, and underwhelmed as well by the entire convention. McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin (assuming it’s confirmed) is a brilliant first counter-stroke. She helps the ticket on so many different fronts: she gives women who are angry about Hillary being passed over another reason to vote McCain; she gives fence-sitting whites who feel they “ought” to vote for Obama because of the historic nature of his candidacy an excuse to find history on the other side; she burnishes McCain’s credentials as an independent, reform candidate; she restores McCain’s credibility on energy and environmental issues, where Obama personally feels most comfortable going on the attack; she will generate enthusiasm among evangelicals among whom Obama was hoping to make inroads; she absolutely locks down the gun-rights vote (where McCain needed to play a bit of defense against Barr); she helps McCain in the Mountain West (Colorado and Montana) where he cannot afford to lose any states (except New Mexico); she neutralizes Biden in the debates (if he comes out zinging, he’ll seem ungentlemanly); and, most important, she makes McCain seem bold, future-oriented, and in control of his Administration, where Obama has seemed timid, defensive and unable to control his own party.
From the beginning, this has been the Democrats’ election to lose. For the first time, I feel like they might actually lose it.
Republican’s really should make a point of studying the Canadian Conservative movement – a wonderful case study of how to lose elections over and over and over…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Campbell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockwell_Day
— Mark · Aug 29, 03:09 PM · #
“he helps the ticket on so many different fronts: she gives women who are angry about Hillary being passed over another reason to vote McCain”
Hillary diehards as far as I can tell, are pretty solidly pro-life and secular. It seems unlikely that Palin will appeal to them. It think the value of this pick is to enthuse the base. I think it works as that too.
— cw · Aug 29, 04:20 PM · #
PS. I liked your speech better, but I think that Obama’s speech worked for him in his present circumstance. Yours might have as well, I don’t know. Poitics is a weird business. I’m just now trying to figure it out. It’s like all the reasoning and humanity operates below the water level. What we see is just a vehicle for subliminal advertising.
— cw · Aug 29, 05:02 PM · #
I don’t know. This seems to really build on the unseriousness that has become the McCain Campaign. She’s was a mayor of a small town and governor of a tiny, sort of goofy, state for 18 months. This is a pick that has everything to do with winning elections and nothing to do with governing. It sort of just tops off the feeling I’ve had about the Republican party for the past 8 years: that they are fundamentally not serious about running the country, only winning elections. It’s just a big game to them. And the enthusiasm I’m hearing from some Republicans perfectly echos that criticism including Noah’s above.
— KJ · Aug 29, 06:11 PM · #
Local Alaskan tv report nails Palin lying about firing scandal. What was McCain thinking?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UojMnCgqVA
— markg8 · Aug 29, 08:30 PM · #
You gotta be crazy to think that this will bring die hard hillary voters to McCains side. First of this whole Hillary thing was highy overhyped from the get go. Thos die hards are very very very few and far between, the only reason there was such a great amount of coverage on the run up to the DNC convention was because the press wanted some story to go with to create contreversey. Also those who backed Hillary did so because they liked her and wanted her and ONLY her to be the first women president. The will not vote for John MCCain so that another women—-pro choice and the opposite on every issue that Hillary was for——can get to the white house before Pailin could. By picking Pailin, the McCain campaign undercuts their argument about experience; also Biden will tear her apart, in fact anyone who the repubs picked would have gotten torn apart by Biden. Due to the incredible speech Obama gave last nite and the way the convention went off with out a hitch making the Democrats unified and look like the party of the people, its clear that the McCain camp is grasping at anything they can to save themselves from defeat. By the way this guy Noah is a partisan hack and a moron if u ask me, i could do a better job and without the partisan slant.
— Dan · Aug 29, 08:37 PM · #
Noah is definitely not partisan like bill kristol or what’s his face Carvell. They are political operatives. As far as I can tell, he’s not partisan at all, just leans slightly right. But maybe that’s not even true. It’s a good thing when you can’t easily pidgeon hole a political bloggers politics.
ps I find I rarely praise blog posts or bloggers. It’s just not my focus (or personality). So I tell myself that I’m not praising Noah, but instead attacking Dan ( Dan, I’m not really attacking you either).
— cw · Aug 29, 09:59 PM · #
She is the ultimate vanity pick for the Republican Party-she’s everything they want, but nothing that we need.
— Jordan · Aug 30, 02:13 AM · #
This is probably the worst pick for VP that John McCain could possible make. As Obama was criticized for not picking Hillary, McCain was nuts not to take a more well-known, established, mainstream candidate like Mitt Romney, or simply a more qualified female Republican.
First of all, this seems primarily just a failed jab to try and win over disgruntled, die-hard Hillary supporters; not only are Palin’s and Hillary’s viewpoints on almost all issues the exact opposite, McCain would have to be insane to think that Hillary-supporters would change parties and vote for the Republican ticket just because there’s a woman on it. Hillary’s supporters like her not because she’s a woman, but because of her vast amount of experience in Washington and a valid ability to lead the country. Palin has never had any political experience on the federal level whatsoever, just in a small town of 6,000 and just in the state of Alaska, that btw has fewer than 700k residents. Not to mention, she’s only held the position as governor for fewer than three years… this is HARDLY an impressive resume for being second-in-command in the country, and John McCain must think that Hillary’s supporters would be so naive and as idiotic as himself so as to vote for her.
Secondly, might I remind you that McCain is a four-time cancer survivor, and is 72 years old – if elected, he’d be older than any other non-incumbent president in US history. Considering this, there could be a strong chance of McCain passing away within his presidency, leaving the whole nation in charge of Sarah Palin, who has never had any experience in national or foreign affairs. You may really like her just because she is pro-life, pro-guns, pro-big oil, and for teaching creation in schools across the country (the first I disagree with, but the last three I find terrifying), but she really has no business at ALL leading the country. If McCain were to die (which, even though I’m a liberal, I would still find very tragic) within the first two years, we would have over half of a presidential term being run by a woman who won’t know how to handle running the country. I admire the great love she has for her very young, special-needs infant, but she really has no capacity to handle him (or her?) as well as the toughest job in the nation.
Third, this completely invalidates McCain’s primary argument that Obama is too inexperienced to run the country. Obama has spent time in the south side of Chicago helping less fortunate communities in their pretty poor lives, he’s spent 8 years in the Illinois senate (representing likely more people than Palin in her whole state), and he has served in the US Senate for almost 4 years now. So, he would have more business and experience helping out middle class families, managing the country rather than a very small state, and dealing with domestic and foreign affairs, not just state affairs (though he has experience in that, too). Palin’s time as Alaskan governor has not even lasted 3 years, and she still has no knowledge of how to manage ANYTHING on the federal level. Considering that, if elected, she could very well take McCain’s spot if he dies, she would have FAR less credentials than Obama, and McCain can never again bring up the Illinois Senator’s supposed lack of experience. Also, if a tragic event occurred that caused Obama (if elected) to die, the country would be in the hands of Joe Biden, who is an expert on federal affairs, having 30 years’ experience in Washington. Frankly, you may not like Biden’s social opinions, but I think we can agree the nation would be far better off in his hands than in Palin’s.
Finally, Palin is not a nice, clean leader… there are some really nasty things about her that should scare anyone. First of all, she is absolutely anti-environment, and makes her money from big oil. She has opposed putting the threatened polar bears on the endangered species list, and supports destroying the safety of Arctic wildlife by drilling in very large quantities up in the wildlife refuge. Palin has also shown insane amounts of partisanship, firing the head of the police force in the town she was elected mayor, simply because he supported the other candidate, and for no other reason. If she’s up in charge in Washington, we can see so much more of this, only it will have massive, corrupted effects on the governing of the entire country. This will do anything but bring the nation together to fight the issues haunting this country in these times, and will only drive the two parties apart, just making the mess left by Bush even WORSE. (Although I’m a devoted liberal, I’m not for having the Supreme Court run in a large difference by either party, Republican or Democratic. Frankly, I’d love to see the Court being held by 3 conservatives, 3 liberals, and 3 judges who are very moderate, so cases are determined by constitutionality, not the views of one party)
As a liberal, I see this in two ways. First, it seems like McCain is nuts and really wants to lose this race in a landslide (which does please me). Second, the prospect of the GOP’s ticket being elected to the office simply horrifies me as to what disasters could fall upon this country.
While Palin is probably a very good mother and a very good person, this nation is doomed if McCain/Palin are elected to the White House.
— scb · Aug 30, 03:06 AM · #
“For the first time, I feel like they might actually lose it.”
I’ve felt like that for a long time. I mean, when you remember that Bill Clinton is the only democratic president elected in the last 30 years you realize that a lot of things work against the democrats. I personally don’t believe Obama could win. I don’t think Hillary could have either, not if she brought that imploding campaign managing style to the general election. McCain/Palin are going to win and we’re all going to be in a lot of trouble. The only silver lining is that we will still control both houses, so we wont have too much of a repeat of Bush’s crazy legislature…but it is going to be a horrible eight years. Well, at least half of the country will happy, and the worst part is that they have such short memories. They’re like houseflies or something. When their grandkids are learning mandarin and arabic, they won’t even remember voting for the man that made it happen.
— Joe · Aug 30, 03:59 AM · #
I think after the original novelty of the pick wears off (and I do agree that McCain needed to take some sort of risk with his pick) it will become pretty apparent how transparently gimmicky McCain’s choice was. Picking off Hillary supporters with a woman that opposes abortion even in the case of rape? A “reform” candidate who, it appears, used her influence as governor to punish an in-law? (I know, I know, in Alaska “clean government” is quite the relative term) Restoring McCain’s credibility on energy and environment how? With a stubborn, quasi-superstitious belief that drilling will have more than a marginal impact on our dependence on foreign oil and a refusal to accept the evidence of anthropological climate change? And I’m not sure that a candidate who has demonstrated a total lack of understanding of or even interest in foreign policy will win a debate with Joe Biden just because she’s can play a defenseless woman on teevee.
On the surface, Palin seems like an impressive pick for the reasons Millman articulates. But go any deeper, and it is actually incredibly vacuous. I really can’t believe how unserious it is. McCain took his best argument against Obama – that he is unready for the solemn office of the presidency – and threw it out the window. He actually found someone who, by contrast, makes Obama look like an old hand.
— Elliot · Aug 30, 05:13 AM · #
It will be interesting to hear the malcontents after Palin and McCain win in November, because they will win. Obama was completely upstaged by McCain’s brilliance.
The left has been coming up on the wrong side of for a long time.
Hank Roth
http://inyourface.info/
— Hank Roth · Aug 30, 12:07 PM · #
I really do not see how this choice of McCain’s is “brilliant” whatsoever. If they are elected, then everyone in the country will have to hope that McCain stays healthy, otherwise the country is in serious, and I mean, SERIOUS trouble.
Also, McCain has basically destroyed and contradicted his motto of “Country First”. With Palin as Vice (or even Commander-In-Chief, if the event were to arise), the country will not be in good hands. It’s seeming with this VP pick that McCain is caring FAR more right now about just appealing to the demographics in which he is weak, than about actually making a VP pick who has the knowledge and experience to take over if something happens to him. McCain’s motto right now shouldn’t be “Country First”, but rather “My Election Victory First”.
For all of you all hyped up because Palin is a female, ultra-conservative Christian, pro-life, pro-gun VP pick, you really need to step back from the whole scenario and evaluate her on what the president would have to do. Will she help out middle class families in the U.S. who are struggling financially, or is she just going to continue the failed Bush economics by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and companies who send jobs overseas? Does she actually have any experience at ALL working on the federal level, where you must deal with issues facing the entire country and the entire world? How are we to trust that she will be bipartisan and bring the country together, given her corruption as mayor of a tiny little town in Alaska and as governor of one of the smallest states in the Union? Or will she continue firing people in the federal government and replacing them all with people who agree with her on every issue, even if they’ve never had any experience in their lives?
Believe me, being the VP is a VERY tough post, and with 72-year-old John McCain having a legitimate chance to have serious health issues, I really doubt that any of you would want to take your chances having Sarah Palin be in charge of the country. If Palin were a man with the exact same views and credentials, McCain would laugh if you suggested him as a VP pick.
McCain is really not thinking whatsoever about putting the future of the United States first on his agenda by picking Palin… it’s solely a gimmicky idea just to make a last-ditch effort at winning an election. If any person actually thinks that McCain is serious about helping the country at all by picking Palin, they, along with McCain, need to have their heads examined.
— scb · Aug 30, 03:53 PM · #
Who are you? Come on, the most important job of the Veep is to be prepared to step in the shoes of the Pres. This Gov’s got no federal experience, extremely limited state government experience. This was a purely political pick, and a dumb one at that, and it should be called what it is.
— bps · Aug 31, 01:23 PM · #
So the only thing I consider as important for a VP is the dreaded nightmare that the president should die before his term has ended. In that case, I want Biden over Palin to run this country. My 2ยข
— blovius · Aug 31, 08:47 PM · #