After my, "Dude, you owe me a beer!" call last Friday, I had one of those curve-ball weekends that didn't give me much time to do anything near a computer -- so let me catch us up on McCain-Palin. (be-still my fluttering heart).
I am still a bit off-bubble from this weekend, so mostly I am going to steal from others -- starting with the title of this post.
My support for Palin is mostly that she is just what we need as a nation and a party -- and offers the Republican Party an opportunity to break the dead hand of the old leadership and shift to a new Generation (like Rep. McCotter (R-MI), Gov. Jindal (R-LA), and Rep. Putnam (R-FL) and others ). That is the Strategic view. The Operational view though is that this just twists the Democrats in knots -- not the XX vs XY one that many jerk towards, no --- something much more substantive. Do they really want underestimate this? (full video here)
You need to read it all, but here is a sampler.
In fact, McCain's pick of Governer Palin has lathered the Presidential game of Twister with a nice coat of Vaseline. Obama and Biden best be wary how they contort themselves here. In the words of comedian Brian Regan: "Right foot red... BROKEN! Left foot green... BROKEN."
Let's review the minefield that Team Obama/Biden must navigate with Palin on board.
Palin has more executive experience than Obama himself (having run a company, a PTO, a town and then Alaska).
- WARNING: Bring up the experience issue at your own peril.
- SAMPLE: "When Senator Obama started his first run for local office I was already a two-term mayor. If you simply count the years of experience, I win, frankly."
- Palin fought corruption in an AK GOP party that was (and still is) full of it
- WARNING: Careful around the "ethical" issues
- SAMPLE: "Like Chicago politics, Alaska politics can sometimes get dirty. In my case I fought my own party tooth and nail for substantive change. I'll let voters decide what Barack Obama did in Chicago."
The father of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says he's been left "speechless" by the announcement that his daughter is John McCain's running mate.Rich Lowry, I think, hits just the right note.
Chuck and Sally Heath got a call from Palin's husband, Todd, yesterday as they were driving to a remote camp in Alaska to hunt caribou. Todd Palin told them to make sure they listen to the radio news because the camp is out of cell phone range.
...
The announcement has proven amusing to Heath. After dealing with constant phone calls, he says he'd "rather go moose hunting than be involved with politics."
Palin is the Republicans' first woman vice-presidential nominee and, of course, has a chance to be the nation's first woman vice president. But "firsts" aside, she's potentially so compelling because she has lived so close to the everyday experience of Americans.And I bet they have no idea what the price of Arugula is a Wholefoods.
Both McCain and Obama come out of elites removed from middle-class life - in McCain's case, the aristocracy of the Navy; in Obama's, the Ivy League and uber-liberal Hyde Park politics.
Obama tried to pick someone with a connection to working-class life, and got Joe Biden - who's famously from Scranton, but has marinated in the US Senate for the last 35 years.
Palin's the real thing. She met her husband of 20 years in high school. As she said yesterday, she and her husband "grew up working with our hands." A fisherman and snowmobiler, he's a member of the United Steelworkers union and works in the oil fields of Alaska's North Slope.
She was "just your average hockey mom," then joined the PTA, got elected to City Council and mayor and won an upset campaign for governor two years ago.
Alaska's Republican Party is a cesspool of cronyism, earmarking and gross self-dealing - and Palin took direct aim at it when she challenged incumbent Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski and beat him in a primary. She went on to defeat ex-Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general.
Finally, if like me life took you away from the tube - here it is. I like part 2 better, but see both.
Anyway -- she looks better than GWB in a flight suit - and more importantaly takes time to visit her troops.
If you haven't already, please read BeldarBlog's bit, and do like I did - order the book.
Enough seriousness. RedState Update, as usual hits the high points.
And remember that Gov. Palin was once a Sports Anchor? Check out that '80s hair!
Just to be fair and balanced. One of the leaders of the Obama camp offers this erudite, balanced, argument.
NB: actually Diddy - it's 1 out of 20 --- if you must know. And it is Meth, not Crack that is the issue; if you cared to know.
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