I didn’t obsessively blog about McCain’s VP choices because for the most part, I found it pointless. McCain was playing it close to the chest, and 99% of the articles in the dextrosphere were based on nothing more than pure speculation or “anonymous sources.” I did lay out my case against Romney, mostly because there was so much Romney cheering at the time, and usually from those who were jeering at Romney when he was in the primaries.
McCain was in a difficult position, and his VP choice was problematic. McCain’s problems with many conservatives, and the Republicans’ largely self-inflicted brand damage made choosing a VP crucial and difficult.
On the political spectrum question, I think he should pick somebody somewhat to his right, but not too far to the right. The “I don’t care about anything except whether he’s like me or not” identity politics voters who form Huckabee’s core are not, for the most part, going to vote for McCain, no matter who he picks, so choosing someone way on the far right is pointless and could hurt his chances come November. Like Reagan, who in the 1980 primaries was getting about the same percentage of votes as McCain is now, he needs to pull from both right and left.
McCain can’t pick somebody ideologically opposed on any of McCain’s strongest issues. That rules out the radical protectionist Duncan Hunter, who is in the wrong party and would be much happier as a Blue Dog Democrat. And Hunter, like Fred, doesn’t have enough of a following to benefit Johnny Mac. Appointing a big porker would have the same effect: An oil-and-vinegar ticket. Picking a free-trade, fiscal conservative is a must. And speaking of musts, McCain can’t afford to alienate hawks. Any of the mealy-mouthed Republicans who suddenly became silent on the war because they were afraid of losing votes would be disastrous. Unfortunately, that rules out most of the Republicans sitting in Congress. In fact, McCain would do well to steer clear of anybody too closely associated with the “compassionate conservative” big government give me my bribe big spenders in the party. Tone deaf idiots like Hastert would not be a good idea.
I posted that in February, and at the time, it was nearly stream of consciousness. I changed my mind about some things, but nothing above. As time went on, it became more and more clear that there was really only one person who could fulfill all the criteria.
And that’s who he picked.
But I will argue that Sarah Palin is far more than a good, or even a great choice. She’s the perfect choice for a number of reasons. And if you’re not up on Sarah Palin, I posted a roundup of Palin links from the day before yesterday. Read through them, so this will make more sense. Rory is on a Palin roll. Head over there to get a local perspective.
Oh. And I’m not even going near the PUMA question, not because I don’t think it’s important, but because it’s been discussed to death, and because it is a comparatively marginal benefit.
She is Johnny Mac’s perfect complement.
Palin strengthens all of McCain’s strongest attributes. She’s a fearless fighter, who fought her state party’s entrenched power structure, and won. Strong and courageous — two of McCain’s greatest strenghs — are also hers. Like McCain, she hates corruption, back room deals, and government waste, and she’s been fighting it since before she was the governor. Also like McCain, she cares less for party line than what she believes is right. By putting her on the ticket instead of a Washington insider, McCain put real teeth in his campaign for change — real change, not insubstantial, undefined change. Like McCain, Palin is an unwavering, unapologetic patriot, and both believe firmly in Reagan’s view of America as a shining city on a hill.
She also shores up McCain’s weaknesses. She’s more socially conservative than McCain, and if you don’t think that’s important, note that seven million dollars in contributions have poured into the campaign since she was announced in Dayton. Of all the primary candidates, her conservatism is most similar to Fred Thompson’s. She takes her oath seriously, and used her veto pen the first time because the law violated the state constitution. She is less favorably disposed to regulation than is McCain, but she’s not afraid to go after powerful businesses when she perceives that it’s in the peoples’ best interests. We know this because she took on the oil companies in Alaska — and won.
No other candidate I can think of would so perfectly have complemented — and strengthened — McCain. Not Romney, not Huck, not Pawlenty. Nobody.
By putting Palin on the ticket, McCain took Obama’s insubstantial “change” agenda away, and offered a real agenda for change. Postpolitical discusses it here.
She is already unifying the conservative coalition.
Since the primaries started, one recurring theme has been the death or fracture of the conservative coalition. Palin kills that discussion, because she brings the coalition back together.
If all Sarah Palin had done was kill the bridge to nowhere, she would be a rock star with fiscal conservatives (and that includes all of the voters who have been disgusted by Republican spending). But she has done muc more. Not only does she energize social conservatives, many of whom have been lukewarm on McCain, but pro-life voters will turn out in droves to pull the lever in November. After all, there is a huge difference between saying you are pro-life on the campaign trail and having a pro-life voting record, but Sarah Palin takes it one giant step forward. She lives it in her personal life with her youngest son, Trig, whom she had even though she knew he would have Down Syndrome.
Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past two days, you can feel the excitement (see here, or for what Christian conservatives are saying, here). Lee at Second Hand Conjecture:
In truth, Palin is of course the ultimate force for unification and it’s why she or someone like her was so desperately needed by McCain and the Republicans. How much of a unifier is she? When the neoconservatives and Ronpaulists like the selection, if you are familiar with the party beyond name, you need say no more.
All one can say is indeed.
Palin is every Jacksonian’s dream candidate
Let’s start with her character and values. Bill Whittle comments on another blog:
I think it is a big mistake to assume that McCain picked Palin because she is a woman. No doubt that is a part of it, but it is Palin’s character that has us just smitten with her. She had a problem at school one day so she went to a PTA meeting. She didn’t like the way things were going so she ran for the PTA and won. Then she ran for mayor of her hometown — where she played basketball and met her husband — and won. Then she got disgusted by Alaska politics and GOP corruption, and as a Republican ran against the corruption in her own party — and won. And she never whined or complained. She’s happily married, she’s a tough lady married to a tougher man, and she got there through hard work and sheer determination.
She’s the conservative success story, and that is why men and women on the right just LOVE this pick. Not because she’s a woman, but because she’s Joe, uh, make that JANE Citizen, and she played by the rules and beat corruption . . . I would encourage you to look at Sarah Palin as what we all hope for: a self-made person who seems to want to do the right thing. She’s not a Woman VP — she’s an anti-corruption VP. That’s how we see her. That’s how she deserves to be seen. She has the enthusiastic — actually, incandescent support of every conservative I know — not because she is a political missile aimed at Hillary voters, but because she embodies the American dream of the citizen who decided to make a difference.
By adding Palin to the ticket, he put the stamp of absolute authenticity on his campaign. Make no mistake, Sarah Palin is as real as it gets. She’s not a wealthy insider pretending to be blue collar. She’s as Joe Jane Six-Pack as anyone alive.
She fishes. She hunts. She’s a gun nut. She shops at Wal-Mart. She was raised by a teacher and a school secretary. She rides a Harley and hangs around with Vietnam Vet bikers. Biden can talk all he wants about his “blue collar roots,” but it’s nothing more than bluster when placed against Palin. And understand: Wal-Mart voters have an unerring instict for detecting one of their own.
Speaking of, since Second Amendment issues are one of my major concerns, let me say this. There is a long standing split in the so-called gun community, which waxes and wanes: The hunters, the shooters, and the Second Amendment activists. Democrats have exploited this split to pass gun control legislation, making their appeals to hunters. Unlike many conservatives in office, Sarah Palin is a firm believer in the Second Amendment itself, not in the “rights of hunters,” but as a right spelled out in the Constitution. She may be the first bona fide gun nut on a ticket since Theodore Roosevelt, and Democrats will find it difficult to exploit the split with Palin on the ticket.
Pictures: Sarah shows off her elk, Sara firing an AR-15.
Mark Steyn — a Canadian — gets it:
First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, “all-American”, but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I’m not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin’ Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who’s done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of “community organizer” and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.
[ . . . ]
Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a “hinterland” - a life beyond politics. Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn’t just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won’t need the usual stage-managed “hunting” trip to reassure gun owners: she’s lived the Second Amendment all her life. Likewise, on abortion, we’re often told it’s easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child? Been there, done that.
Her husband is a Democrat and a union member, and from everything we see, it works out well for them. He will be a cultural magnet. In season, he’s a commercial fisherman (he used to work in the oil fields until Palin’s fight with the oil companies, and he resigned due to conflict of interest). He’s a world champion snowmobile racer. Men all over the country are going to see him and admire him. He may not be on the ticket, but he will attract votes.
I’ve said it before. Liberals always ignore or discount the cultural factor until they lose the election, and then further demonstrate that they don’t get it by wondering “What’s wrong with Kansas?” Let’s not make the same mistake. Culture will have as much influence as issues in this election as it always has, and the McCain-Palin ticket stomps all over Obama and Biden. That authenticity is worth more than you might suspect.
Palin deflates the Democratic ticket.
As I said above, adding Palin makes the GOP the ticket of real change, and takes all the air out of Obama’s ethereal “change” platform. She underscores the lack of executive experience on the Obama-Biden ticket because she has more executive experience than both of them put together. She offers real hope to Americans across the country that they can work and succeed just like she has.
She is living, breathing proof that a woman can fight and win against corrupt, entrenched power, all while having four children (now five), and without going on the public dole, or whining about why she can’t get “free” childcare, or bringing ridiculous “sexual harassment” lawsuits, or without riding on her husband’s coattails to get where she is today.
Her story, which is getting out now, will be as inspiring as McCain’s. Forget the Hillary voter question. If Sarah Palin isn’t a strong woman, none exists. However they vote, she will be a heroine for women and girls across the country, and a source of pride for fathers and brothers.
And forget the “chickenhawk” argument. McCain was already immune both by his own service, and his son fighting in Iraq. Sarah Palin’s eldest son Track will deploy to Iraq in September.
She paints the Democrats into a corner.
Romney, the Democrats were ready for. The same is true of Huck, Rudy, anyone they saw coming. But they weren’t, and aren’t, ready for Palin, and really have no line of attack.
They can’t attack her on corruption, since fighting corruption has been her entire political career. They can’t attack her on experience without shooting themselves in the process. Worse, any line of attack risks alienating women voters — not so much because of identity politics, but because the Obama campaign can’t seem to confront female candidates without being insulting and condescending. Look at Hillary and her base of support.
They can’t use her lack of foreign policy experience, at least when it comes out (and it is) how thin and insubstantial Biden’s foreign policy experience is. They can’t attack her as a continuation of Bush, since she has no connection to the Bush White House, and has always been a thorn in the side of the party insiders.
And troopergate? They can’t go there, because, as Gertrude Stein said, “There’s no there there,” and more importantly, because if they do, they ally themselves with a nasty piece of work who has, among other things, tasered his own step-children, beat his wife, and threatened to kill her father.
The Democrats’ hands are tied, and they know it. Even the oblivious Obama campaign, after releasing an obnoxious statement, has backed off and apologized for it. There is absolutely nothing the Democrats can do but watch Palin’s star rise.
Palin is change beyond the ticket.
Because everybody is focused on the election, few have yet appreciated that the change goes much further than just the ticket. If the party nominates the ticket — which they must — they also put their imprimatur to a badly needed change in the party itself.
Sarah Palin has fought the old boys’ club continuously, and won. She is everything Washington insiders hate the most. She’s an uppity citizen, who rather than shutting up, runs for office and beats the party hacks. She’s not the only one; Bobby Jindal is another. But Sarah’s the one on the ticket.
No matter who wins in November, the RNC can’t unring the bell. Her spot on the ticket ushers in a new generation, one that isn’t as respectful of party leadership as the leadership thinks they should be. She is pulling the coalition together, and giving us more voice. She is the embodiment of and the instrument for the change the party needs most badly.
I suspect more than a few Beltway insiders hate her. I also suspect that you don’t hear much of that because they don’t dare. Palin is too much like the average American citizen and far too popular for the insiders to sneer. And the best part is that there’s nothing they can do about it.
Let’s not forget John McCain. He is the man who saw these things in her, and he is the man who asked her to be his VP candidate. He knew exactly what he was doing, and by doing so, he signaled to the insiders that he is as serious about turning the party upside down as she is. John McCain deserves a standing ovation for selecting Sarah Palin.
Unless something unforeseen happens, I believe they will be unstoppable. Sarah is the Deadliest Catch.
Cross posted at blogs4mccain
