« Shocker: Historians who Donated to Obama Don't Like Palin | Main | Democrats: Tee, Hee! Hurricanes are Awesome! »
August 30, 2008
The Intelligensia's Freak Out Over Palin
During a campaign, whenever I feel like dipping my head into a big old bucket of pessimism, there's no better place to go than National Review's "The Corner." Judging from the reaction of some commentators there, you would think Sarah Palin was the absolute worst thing to happen to conservatism ever, ever.
To be fair, there are some strong Palin backers - Lowry, Goldberg, Steyn and Levin are all strongly in her corner. Some others, though, act as though Palin shot their dogs. The reason for their near-certainty that McCain made a bad pick is, that in picking a relatively inexperienced governor, McCain has lost the chance to criticize Barack Obama on the same grounds.
To which I say: nonsense. While I think McCain has been doing a fine job pointing out Obama's lack of experience, I do not think that line of argument is responsible for Obama's drop in the polls. I think Obama is responsible for Obama's drop in the polls. Obama made a vainglorious overseas trip, designed his own presidential seal, made a puzzling vice presidential pick and wasn't able to entirely control the Clintons at the convention that was supposed to be his. In short, a lot of unforced errors. His speech seems to have moved the needle, but the size of his bounce suggests it didn't impress independents as much as simply bring home some disgruntled Democrats.
What those who fret about the experience seem to forget is that that line of attack has already been tried against Obama, and it didn't work. It's clear from the McCain campaign's shrewdness of late that they carefully studied the Democratic primary and have taken some lessons from it. They saw, for instance, that Obama tends to be thin-skinned and tweaked him with the "Celebrity" advertisements. I think they also saw that while Clinton's "3 a.m." ad worked, it didn't move enough voters for her to take the nomination.
McCain's statements lately have shown that they are moving their message from Obama's lack of experience to his lack of judgment. Obama touted what he considered his superior judgment on the campaign trail, but his responses to recent crises have contradicted those words. His political history also puts the lie to that claim.
With his pick of Palin, McCain is throwing down a gauntlet of sorts. He's saying that while his running mate may have equally limited experience, the experience she does have shows that she has better judgment. Obama played the crooked Chicago politics game; Palin fought corruption. Obama associated with criminals and terrorists; Palin associates with the working class. Obama has disdain for those who "cling to" guns and religion; Palin hunts and goes to church. Obama voted with his party 96% of the time; Palin ran against and beat a sitting governor from her own party in the primary and isn't afraid to take on Republicans who she thinks is wrong.
In short, Palin's political experience is everything Obama's is not. Personally, I think she's going to make those points clearer in her acceptance speech on Wednesday. Palin's appeal is not based on her experience. It's based on who she is and the choices she made and I think her story will resonate with the middle-class voters who have yet to fully accept or trust Obama.
And as an added bonus, Palin brings the base back to McCain. In a big way.
Still, I've got to say that no matter what, I like reading the Corner. I don't think they're elitists or not conservative. Just a bit twitchy at times.
Posted by slublog at August 30, 2008 09:55 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3878