Palin Comparison …
… is pretty much what it is starting to look like the Obama camp will do,* as McCain breaks right with a pro-life, pro-gun woman who is younger than Obama, almost entirely unknown Washington outsider/reformer with governing experience. Maverick reportedly breaks left on some issues. The campaign just got interesting again. Boston Herald with the news. Opinion-plus roundup follows. A lot of raves, a couple of sour looks:
Surber likes this hockey mom/reformer, who wants to drill in her own state and inhaled. He likes her a lot:
She is a sensible, level-headed and successful woman who is pro-life. She hunts. She fishes. She eats moose burgers. She inhaled — when it was legal in Alaska. As the mother of 5, she knows what the stakes are. She is the lioness who will protect this nation and defend the rights of its citizens.
I thought her pregnancy and the birth of her child this year would dash her VP hopes. Her son has Down’s Syndrome, which she learned of during her pregnancy. She does not believe in the death penalty for retarded children.
She will fight for America’s energy independence and sued the Bush administration over this. She chooses to save the country over “saving” the polar bears.
It helps that she is good-looking.
It better helps that she is a fighter.
Reynolds reports positive reax among the fairer sex to the pro-gay rights, anti-corruption gun-clinger:
The Insta-Wife is ecstatic, which may bode well for that demographic. I’d like it if she had more executive experience, but to be fair, she’s got more than anyone else on either ticket. Is she too liberal on gay rights? Not for me, but maybe for some people.
That should make things even more interesting, and confuse the opposition. Palin appears to be all over the map, issue by issue, which will irk some and please others. American is a great country. The question is whether the hard right will buy all this big tent free-thinking and settle for cafeteria-style conservatism. I suspect the vast middle, where people have a lot of varying and sometimes surprising combinations of views on guns, abortion, gay rights, pot, war, etc., and don’t particularly like to be told which way they are supposed to think, will find a lot to like. That Clinton-Obama wedge the Dems were trying to pry out may have just taken another sledgehammer blow, though the pro-life part complicates that picture.
Hey, it’s already working. Wolfson at The New Republic:
Yesterday I argued that picking a woman for veep would help re-establish McCain’s reputation as a maverick. If the pick is indeed Sarah Palin you are going to have a lot of women voters wondering why Senator Obama didn’t tap Senator Clinton as his running mate.
Meanwhile Malkin, no McCain fan, welcomes a “true conservative” and hopes for change. No, not that kind of change-hoping.
NPR’s quick profile: “Maverick.”
Disappointment over at Powerline, where Paul decries inexperience and John calls it a Hail-Mary Geraldine Ferraro move that he doesn’t think will work.
Castle Argghhh!!! with some gushing in the heartland.
CBS’s Brody: Evangelicals go bonkers for Palin.
* No waiting: It’s McCain-Palin 1, Hairplugs-Charm 0 as the Obama camp knocks Palin for inexperience. Yeah, that’ll work.
Some Palin pros and cons from NRO’s The Corner. The inexperience thing is cited high. Palin could be president with a year, The Corner notes. Maybe, worst case. Obama could be within six months. Obama of course wouldn’t be the first president to learn foreign policy on the job, though his stubborn adherence to really bad ideas and his refusal to accept reality suggest a steep, probably insurmountable learning curve ahead.
Topics: McCain
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:28 pm on Friday, August 29, 2008
7 Responses to “Palin Comparison …”
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August 29th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Better to have inexperience a heartbeat away from the presidency than actually in the presidency.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I’m not sure if it’s a good political move or not, though it feels right. Personally, I think she’s great. The (lack of) experience issue does worry me some, but better a lack of experience in the VP slot than the guy actually running for President, so that issue is hardly in Obama’s favor. Still, I consider 2 years as Governor to be better experience than anything Obama has done in his lifetime. A Senator as junior as Obama, who never even bothered to call a meeting of his own subcommittee, hardly ranks next to any governor of any state when it comes to running things.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
The Obamaists sure know how to stick their feet in their mouths, don’t they? :-D
August 30th, 2008 at 5:03 am
[...] Jules Crittenden » Palin Comparison … [...]
August 30th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Inexperienced? While Obama was killing time in some Senate or other, she challenged corruption in her own party, became a governor with a stellar approval rating and raised a family. But she hasn´t written two autobiographical books. That must count against her.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Feels right to me. All sorts of goodies to make lefty heads explode. Actual executive experience as a conservative governor with high approvals in a decidedly anti GOP time. She’s attractive, like virtually none of the Maoist trolls on the other side. So “The Nation”, (where only the editor is allowed to look nice), will certainly be in a tizzie. She hunts. She has stared “choice” in the face and made the right one. Actual executive experience. Union household that tilts right. Sounds like real change. Heh.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Did I mention actual executive experience?