The selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain's VP running mate has me jazzed. She has for some time been one of my two secret hopes for the slot, the other being Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. I have to say that the campaign milked every drop of drama in building to the announcement, including the scary head fakes towards Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge, pro-choicers either of whom would have further cemented the posteriors of social conservatives to their couches during this election season.
There are two basic ways to gauge the effect of this pick on the electoral climate: the positive take and the negative take. On the positive side, the McCain campaign raked in some four million dollars on the day of the announcement from the internet alone (full disclosure: I was one of the donors. I had said I would wait for his veep pick before contributing, and I obviously was not alone in that stance), vastly more money than on any previous day in the history of the McCain campaign. We pro-life, pro-gun, pro-family, pro-God "clingers" knew that the Senator's running mate selection would be a clear message to us, and boy, was it ever. The Senator seemed to be saying to us, with this great pick following hard upon his very encouraging Saddleback appearance, in effect, "I'm in." And we have answered him with a resounding "We're in." This is going to be very interesting.
From the negative perspective, there are screams and howls from the Obama camp and their armor-bearers in Big Media. McCain has in effect thrown a live grenade into the Dems' tent. They came back with a smarmy little barb about the "mayor of a town of 9,000", completely bypassing her current position as governor of a state which borders on Canada and Russia (the only state with two international borders) and from which comes some twenty percent of our nation's energy supply. Of course the experience thing is a real trap for the Obamicans, in that the bottom of the GOP ticket has at least the same amount of experience as the top of the Dems' dance card, not to mention the fact that Governor Palin has the only executive experience of the four Potus and VPotus candidates. Realizing this, the Barackites backed off some from their original attack. But the ether is rife with the screams of soft libs and wizened feminazis. What is to become of a woman's right to choose? Hopefully, the answer to that is that it will ultimately be buried under the weight of a baby's right to live. Life is, after all, the very first right acknowledged in a U.S. foundational document. By the way, Sarah has innoculated herself against the old lib saw about how convenient it is to be philosophically pro-life as long as you are not the woman who faces an unwanted pregnancy or finds herself carrying a child whom society would deem "less than" and who would have life-long special needs. Sarah and Todd knew they had a Down Syndrome baby on the way. They eschewed the available "choice", and now Sarah says that when she looks into the eyes of young baby Trig she sees "perfection." Who can beat that?
What this thing will ultimately boil down to is perceived character more than perceived experience. The Obama people have heretofore deflected the experience issue, as well as that of questionable past associations, and have asked the voters to choose instead on the basis of personality and identity politics. On the other side you have a man who on principle refused an early exit from hideous years of torture and isolation in the service of his country and a woman who from all appearances holds and walks out an impressive set of core convictions. Barring an unexpected skeleton of the closet variety, Governor Palin will continue to resonate with a large number of Americans who see in her those qualities they most admire and aspire to in themselves.
It's a good thing that Sarah is not a fictitious character, because a cynical publisher would turn the novel down. How could anyone have made up someone like her: state champion point guard (nickname- "Sarah Barricuda"), beauty queen, moose hunter, mother of five, corruption fighter, mayor, governor? There remains the question of whether she will bear up in the withering heat of the crucible that is presidential politics. Much has been made in particular of the seasoned toughness of her opposite number, Senator Joe Biden, who, Dems and media types feel (and hope), will clean her clock. My money, though, is on the Barricuda.
