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August 29, 2008
The Maverick Gets One Right
Who knew the crafty dog still had some surprises in him?
Actually, I'm not all that surprised, given how shrewd the McCain campaign has been the last few weeks. Their "celebrity" ad obviously got under Barack Obama's skin, the Saddleback forum showed a vast difference between his worldview and Obama's and now this - picking the one person who can unite the base and still allows him to maintain his Mavericky image.
Impressive.
Ed Morrissey does a nice job summing up the reasons why this was a good pick. I would add that the Palin pick has actually drawn the Obama campaign into a debate they can't win - experience. As someone said on Howie Carr's show this evening, Palin has run both a city and a state. All Obama has run is his mouth.
Palin is a good pick for another, more simple, reason - she's likable, and that counts for a lot in an election. In fact, I'd say that's probably some of the reason Obama was so popular among Democrats in the primary - his likability (which he's now squandered with his over-the-top acceptance speech).
I got an email from the Frary campaign tonight about the Palin pick, and the professor sums up why Palin is going to be a good pick to attract rural voters:
“This is a selection that should send chills down the spines of nanny state urbanites everywhere. As I understand it, not only does this woman have a horde of children, she also snowmobiles and owns guns, and although I can not say with certainty that she has a shotgun across the back window of her pickup, I wouldn’t be surprised.”This state is full of outdoorsy people who like to hike, fish, hunt and snowmobile and I think they will relate more to someone like Palin than Obama or Joe Biden.
“Governor Palin is also an executive. The possibility of four windbag Senators on the two tickets was possibly the most chilling aspect of this year’s election. I will add that Senator McCain at least has some heroic credentials to go with all that hot air.“Governor Palin beat an incumbent Governor in the primary and then a former Governor in the general election in a very poor Republican year by running as an eccentric outsider with blunt, no nonsense proposals. This is certainly an inspiration to me.
This pick isn't without risk. I have no doubt that the press will do everything it can to trip Palin up and justify their comparisons of Palin to Dan Quayle. The nutroots have already begun their vicious attacks - our friends on the left have compared her to a porn star, suggested she faked her pregnancy to cover for the fact that Trig is actually her daughter's son and have opined that McCain only picked her because he wants to sleep with her. Yes, those are actual comments from liberal blogs. I won't provide links I don't want to provide those sites with even the meager traffic that this blog would provide.
There's also what's being dubbed "troopergate." I'm inclined to go with Allah on this one - why would a woman with a bright political future risk it so publicly? The issue doesn't seem like a political loser when you discover what type of guy that trooper was - he beat Palin's sister-in-law, tazered his 11-year old son and threatened to kill Palin's parents. As one of ace's co-bloggers said, good luck defending a wife beater and abuser to get to Palin. Her problem may be that women voters wouldn't understand why she didn't use her office to have this guy fired.
Basically, this pick has gotten me energized about the McCain candidacy, something I never thought would happen. It's not who Palin is that excites me, it's what McCain's choice of her means. In picking her, he showed that he thinks the concerns of the conservative base matter. The fact that she has the potential to pick up disgruntled Hillary supporters and rural voters is just gravy.
So because McCain did something I never thought he'd do, I'm going to return the favor and do something I never thought I'd do - donate to his campaign. If you'd like to join me, here's the link. I encourage you to do so - a big flush of donations to his campaign would show him and the media that the enthusiasm gap has been closed.
Posted by slublog at August 29, 2008 09:07 PM
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Comments
The Nutroots are doing the only things they know to do: slandering, outright lying, and all the other cheap tricks of their trade.
I do think however, that the Drive By Media won't be able to ruin her as they did Dan Quayle, because of the fact the New Media can get the truth out there to millions of folks.
Thank God for the blogosphere!
And I did it too, Slublog ~ contributed to the McCain-Palin campaign, as did millions of others, amounting to over 4 Million dollars just yesterday! That speaks quite loudly, doesn't it?
BTW, I've bookmarked your very nice blog, and as Ahnold says:
Owl Be Bach...
Posted by: Maura at August 30, 2008 04:33 PM
I hate to burst your bubble about McCain's pick for VP, but it's not that impressive. She has two things that he lacks: a uterus and breast! Don't think that the Right can't spin as much as the Left because that's all I'm hearing. She couldn't run as a credible Presidential Candidate. She is not the most experience Republican McCain could of chose. She isn't even the most experienced WOMAN McCain could of chose! He chose her because he wanted a woman who was easy on the eyes - that's all.
The first thing mentioned about her is that she has 5 kids! My Grandmother had 14. She fishes and hunts. My Grandmother can do the same. When did your hobbies, and your number of offspring become political clout??
Hillary supporters weren't Hillary supporters because she was a woman. Many Democratic women will find this VP pick of McCain offensive. It's coming - mark my words...
Posted by: Michael at September 2, 2008 02:31 AM