Published in the The New York Post on September 3, 2008
The dominant question at the GOP convention is: Will John McCain make the huge mistake of abandoning Sarah Palin?
Some claim he made a mistake in choosing the Alaska governor. My bet is the reverse – that she’ll turn out to be a big win.
Even if I’m wrong, dropping her now would doom him in November. If McCain lets baseless, sexist smears set his course, he’d turn all the good Palin has already done for him, and should do in the weeks ahead, into a negative – demoralizing the GOP base and losing independents.
Understand: Palin is under attack because she was such a good choice.
Remember the Democrats’ central charge on McCain – “He’s a Bush clone.” By choosing Palin, something George Bush would never have done, McCain showed how really different he is.
The old ground rule for picking a running mate was to help the ticket carry a particular state. But Bill Clinton changed the rules when he tapped Al Gore in 1992. Clinton likely would’ve carried Tennessee anyway, but the choice of Gore emphasized the most important feature of Clinton’s candidacy: He was from a new generation and represented a new outlook.
And so Sarah Palin reinforces the most important aspect of the McCain candidacy: Despite 30 years in Washington, he’s an outsider and a dedicated foe of corruption and conflict of interest in government. He’s the one who stands up against pork, earmarks and lobbyists and backs campaign-finance reform.
Palin brings the same kind of credentials to the ticket. When she speaks tonight and emphasizes her record of reform and her commitment to bring ethical standards to Washington, she’ll strike a deeply resonant chord throughout the nation.
None of the “scandal” reflects ill on Sarah herself. They’re the kind of family issues that bedevil many American women. That the media accords such prominence to them shows how fundamentally differently we treat women and men in politics.
Should she not serve as vice president because her daughter is pregnant? Or her husband had a DWI 20 years ago? Or her sister married a state trooper, who shocked his 11-year-old son with a Tazer, leading relatives and friends to think he should be fired? Or because she exercised her legal right to fire the head of the State Police when he saw no reason to fire the trooper?
Palin has an extensive public record – with more executive experience than Barack Obama or Joe Biden (or McCain, for that matter). She should be judged on her record, same as a man. If she is, she’ll survive these charges in great style.
And then the backlash will set in. Tens of millions of women have had to confront life experiences akin to Palin’s.
After years of electing plasticized creations of political consultants, we have the chance to vote for a real person with real peoples’ problems. In standing by her, McCain speaks volumes about his attitude toward women and his empathy for those who face family troubles. His loyalty illustrates not just his decency, but his sensitivity and good sense.
All of which illustrates the most fundamental point of this convention: That John McCain is no George W. Bush.
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Understand: Palin is under attack because she was such a good choice. I’m not sure that I would agree with that…….a maverick choice that women are victims, and men powerful patriarchs… but to choose outside the box and Washington, one has to be smart. Remember the Democrats’ central charge on McCain – “He’s a Bush clone.†By choosing Palin, something George Bush would never have done, McCain showed how really different he is…is he really different or just trying to be different. I don’t know the voting record of McCain nor of his personal battles in Congress, however, but so many have preceeded him with ideas of grandeur and change, and the country still never gets an better. I’m just looking at this from a “voter’s perspective” like so many of us will be in November. I’m not saying Obama/Biden is any better, but all the candidates are you friends, until they get elected.
Palin is now a “VP candidate of the real people, and modern woman” with common family difficulties and issues that women can identify with. Again, we are making women to be preceived as the victim. All Americans are real people, with real problems and elections only add to and not reslove what we all are experiencing….and it is not just women.
If I thought for a minute that McCain choose Palin because of her qualifications I would say a good choice…..but I don’t that is the case, because it doesn’t fit his political profile…..and the statement that McCain is no George Bush……McCain a man so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.
I think it comes down to the follwing math: is the number of votes McCain picks up from the base greater than the number of votes he loses from socially liberal / fiscal conservatives?
I don’t know how many voters I represent – I am a registered Democrat who is a social liberal and wants low taxes / small government. I put my wallet first except at the extremes, and Palin is an extremist on things like abortion, guns, gay rights, etc.
Basically I voted for Bill Clinton and cheered when his collaboration with Newt forced him to cut the dividend tax rate to 20%. If I were old enough at the time, I would have been a Reagan Democrat. I changed parties back in 2000 in order to support McCain in the primaries and have given McCain money each time he ran. I always have admired his image as a centrist with good foreign policy credentials.
But now I am reluctantly for Obama because I just can’t embrace the idea of a Palin Presidency. I am plugging my nose and voting for a tax increase for myself.
I think McCain made a calculation that he needed to make the election another Culture War. I would be interested to hear Dick Morris break down the math on this. If I represent a certain block, does the marginal pick up in base Republicans outweigh my group?
Peliot: I like your post. I think we have migrated to similar ground from opposite sides. I have been a lifelong “conservative”. Over the last few years I began to doubt my commitment to the “conservative” ideology as I found myself agreeing with so called “Liberals”. One of my best friends is a “Liberal” Senator and he and I have some of the best discussions and frankly agree more than we disagree. We both have families, we both want a better life for our kids, we both want a better world.
What I really want are solutions to the grave issues facing us today and I am rejecting left/right ideologically based views as non-productive. It makes sense to me to be fiscally responsible. Spend within our means. On the other hand it also makes sense to me that every person in our very rich country deserves to have access to good healthcare. It also appalls me to see that we are prepared to incarcerate people rather than address the root causes of their behavior. I speak about the unimaginable poverty in pockets of America that breed criminal behavior. Children raised in abject poverty in an environment of drugs, terror and aberrant behavior. Then we wonder why they become gang bangers and deal drugs. The conservative mantra of personal responsibility becomes not an ideal but a cop out. We criticize other nations for human rights violations while we ignore our impoverished. I am still a conservative but I demand solutions and an end to the pointless and unproductive wrangling of the left/right ideologues. At the moment, one day I lean towards Obama and the next towards McCain. What I find very refreshing is that we have two great candidates. A cause to seriously investigate and think about our choice.
OH YE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT .. be afraid.. be VERY AFRAID…Sarah Palin will be your undoing as she is able to authoritatively speak on ANWAR, your holiest of holies. And when the oil begins to flow there IT WILL FLOW EVERYWHERE breaking the back of your warmed over communist carnard of global warming. She will expose your prophet AL Gore for his falsehoods and he will be stoned into the oblivion of political obscurity…. BE VERY AFRAID!!!!!
Blantz: Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death; I will fear no evil, for thou are with me……….