Musings on the Palin Pick

Over the past few days, I have posted some links to discussions about Sarah Palin. I have shared my own personal anecdote about the time leading up to McCain’s announcement. And I have discussed Palin with numerous people, never missing an opportunity to sing her praises. That said, it is time to address some of the negative aspects of the press coverage of and general reaction to her selection.

1) Sexism – I hate to play the sexism card so early in the game, but I speak as I find. Much has been made of the sexism directed at Hillary Clinton, both from the media and from the Obama campaign. For awhile, I mostly dismissed these charges. Some of them just seemed a bit forced. When Obama pulled out her chair for her at a debate, this was declared a sexist act. I don’t buy that. But as the campaign wore on, examples of sexism became more clear. I have to admit I was a little surprised by Hillary’s treatment. If a woman of Hillary’s national profile was subject to sexist comments (for example, mocking her tears), what chance does another woman have? But the Palin pregnancy rumors are particularly offensive as they involve not only Palin herself, but her innocent teenage daughter. I will not even dignify this rumor with a recounting and debunking of this ridiculous tale, but suffice to say it is appalling. And let’s just say for the sake of argument that it is true, ignoring the implausibility of the most prominent woman in the state being able to fake both a pregnancy and a birth, but how would that make Palin a villain? I’m just missing what would be so awful about this non-issue scandal, even if it WERE true.

The left should take a long, hard look at how they handle this. It remains to be seen how independent or Democratic-leaning women will react to Palin on the ticket. But the left should tread carefully with regard to her pregnancy. Imagine an undecided “soccer mom” who voted for Hillary in the primary, perhaps already sensitiive over Hillary’s treatment. She does not like McCain or Obama, but then sees people on the left blowing up pictures of Palin’s daughter and pointing to her stomach and asserting that she is pregnant. This woman imagines her teenage daughter being treated this way. It may not push her to McCain, but it certainly won’t push her toward Obama. It could push her to not vote out of disgust and OBAMA NEEDS THOSE HILLARY SUPPORTERS.

“But, but, but… Sarah Palin would not have been picked if she were not a WOMAN!” I beg you, Obama supporters. PLEASE don’t go there.

2) Experience – It is fair to say that Palin lacks the long-term Washington experience of McCain or Biden, but honestly, look at her experience as opposed to Obama’s experience. At best, they are comparable, and at worst (for Obama) her qualifications are clearly superior as her experience is actually EXECUTIVE level experience. He is a legislator and a community organizer. What does that even mean? More importantly, what is it that makes someone qualified to be President? Is being a good speaker what makes someone qualified? To paraphrase, Andrew Sullivan asks how Palin would have stacked up against a powerful political campaign machine (meaning, the Clintons) had she run for president. The answer: we don’t know because Palin did not have the ARROGANCE to run for president! She is running for VICE-PRESIDENT. Obama, with qualifications that are no greater than Palin’s, aspires to be President. It has actually been suggested that Palin should agree to step down should something happen to McCain, and pass off the presidency to someone more qualified. I swear, I almost had an aneurysm when I read that. Should Obama agree to step down if he is elected, because Joe Biden is vastly more experienced than he is (plagiarism notwithstanding?) I have never in my life seen anything like that even suggested.

3) Altering the state of the race - This is key. I think the Obama camp was probably relying on a lot of Republicans either 1) staying home because they disliked McCain or 2) Voting for him, but not donating money or devoting time to campaigning or volunteering. Palin’s selection has energized the base. These are not converts in the traditional sense. They were not going to vote for Obama. To be honest, in terms of my vote, McCain picking Palin has only spared my liver the excessive amount of gin it would have required to get me to the polls on Election Day. But, in terms of advocacy and volunteering, it has inspired me to actively take part in his campaign. I can’t wait to figure out how I can become involved in promoting this ticket. I disagree with John McCain on many issues, but my opinion of his judgment has increased dramatically. I am hoping that he comes to her defense against this personal slander, as he remembers how he was slandered during his 2000 presidential run.

4) Troopergate - Last and probably least, the Troopergate scandal. As non-issues go, this pretty much takes the cake. I'm so sick of reading comments like "OMGZZZ, Sarah Palin is under investigation for abuse of power! The McCain campaign, like, TOTALLY didn't even vet her."
The problem with this argument is that *I* knew about Troopergate long before McCain picked her. How? Did I fly to Anchorage or Juneau and comb the Alaska archives? Did I interview Palin's close associates? Did I hack government files? No, I went to Google and did a Google News search for "Sarah Palin" and lo, look what I saw: Troopergate. Do people REALLY think that the McCain operatives who successfully torpedoed Obama's convention bounce could not manage to Google News search his running mate? This is the kind of ignorance we are up against, and it ain't pretty.

I guess I shouldn’t worry too much. People will know what to make of Palin as the campaign goes on, and I know the response will be positive. I guess the mainstream media does not appreciate being played for fools, as they were by the McCain campaign who had us ALL believing the choice would be a yawn-inducing Pawlenty, Romney, Lieberman or Ridge. I’m excited to watch this play out. And I can’t wait for the Palin/Biden debate!!!

Pro-Palin Arguments

Here's a good post outlying some of the positives of the Palin pick.

As promised, my own is forthcoming.

I'm Back!

Sorry for the long break from blogging, but what with my move and settling in waiting for internet, I fell behind.

For my "first post back", I can not resist talking about Sarah Palin.

The night before Palin was picked, I was doing a law school assignment and checking out the Palin For VP blog. My feeling was that the pick would be Romney or Pawlenty. There was lots of chatter, and I am the first to admit that the other commenters felt way more confident than I did. A mysterious commenter named "Drew", claiming to have inside info from the McCain campaign began leaking intriguing tidbits of information, but we had no real reason to consider his assertions credible, UNTIL everything he predicted started happening, little by little.

I heard someone gave a speech that night in Denver, but all I did was click "refresh" on that comment thread. Some of these people missed their calling and should become investigative detectives, because it was on that comment thread where the story about the plane from Anchorage to Dayton broke. It was at that point that I began to get my hopes up.

At around 1:30 AM (I think) Drew came on one last time and told us that we would all be "very pleased" with McCain's pick. This caused about an hour or so of gossip and speculation, at which point I had to go to bed. I did have class the next day. When I woke up, the plane info had made Drudge, although there were conflicting reports that she was in Alaska.

Long story short, I was sitting in class on my laptop when one by one the news sites began confirming Palin as the pick. I had tears in my eyes as I watched her speech. (No, I was not going to faint like an Obama nut, but it was a pretty moving moment. Plus, it had been a looooong night.) I just am so impressed that McCain would make such a good choice. I did not see it coming.

I will post again later about exactly what makes Palin such a good choice, but for now I would like to answer a question from my friend Tory - on a scale of 1-10, my excitement is around a 30.

Now it feels real...

I am finally able to view my schedule for the fall term online. I will be taking Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Research and Writing, and a short course on Litigation Basics. My Litigation course and Legal Research course begin on August 19th, the rest of the classes begin August 25th. I'm both nervous and excited!

The Time of the Season

If it's August, it must be waitlist season.

I just got a phonecall from a law school I would have been thrilled to attend if you had asked me six months ago. Now I have a lease and a scholarship. At least the decision was made easy for me by the fact that the spot was in their part time evening program. I don't really want to do part time.

I'm still a (Night) Owl!

How is this ok??

Sickening.

I refuse to believe that if we were going into Mexico and holding their border patrol/military agents at gun point, the Mexican government would just shrug it off.

Why are we allowing our country to be invaded?

Painting the town... Pink?

Paris for President!

At least she is pro-drilling.

The End of the Reagan Era?

I found this Washington Post piece on Real Clear Politics. I find it interesting, but not entirely accurate. For example, this part:

But now, seemingly all of a sudden, conservatives are the ones who are tongue-tied, as demonstrated by Sen. John McCain's limping, message-free presidential campaign. McCain's ongoing difficulties in exciting voters aren't just a tactical problem; his woes stem largely from his long-standing adherence to a set of ideas that simply haven't worked in practice. The belief system and finely crafted policy pitches that enabled the right to dominate the war of ideas for the past 30 years have produced a relentless succession of governing failures, from Iraq to Katrina to the economy to the environment.

It is not fair to dismiss an entire intellectual and political movement based on one candidate's campaign. Senator McCain has not been running a particularly inspiring campaign, to be sure. But that is his own and his campaign's failure to convey a message. There are plenty of dynamic conservative leaders, but we did NOT nominate any of them. Rudy Giuliani, for example, is a dynamic and capable conservative politician. I wish that he had run the same type of campaign during the primary season as he did when he was running for mayor of New York. We have some younger conservatives on the horizon (Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal, for example.) John McCain does not represent the true nature of conservatives or conservatism.

Conservatism is in a crisis right now, but not for lack of good ideas.

Good McCain Ad!

Check out this awesome ad mocking Obama's "divinity." This is exactly what I have been waiting for from McCain's campaign. McCain's new domestic policy stances are clearly superior to Obama's (with the regrettable exception of immigration), he is vastly superior on the War on Terror, but the Obama hype is what is keeping things so close. Ads like this that emphasize what a joke so much of this hype is are very important. Keep them coming!

Awesome Interview

Here is a fantastic interview with my favorite Republican, Sarah Palin. McCain is crazy if he doesn't pick her.

(Thanks to Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President for the link!)