Don't Blame Governor Palin

I love Peggy Noonan. She is a brilliant writer and has been one of the most important voices of the conservative movement as far back as her days as a speech writer for President Ronald Reagan. But yesterday she published a column at the Wall Street Journal's website entitled Palin's Failin' that is just wrong. Essentially Ms. Noonan blames Sarah Palin for the failings of the McCain presidential campaign. I felt strongly enough about it to write a (longer than intended) comment at wsj.com, which I include below.


Peggy - I think you're holding Governor Palin to an unfairly high standard. She's the vice-presidential nominee of the party, not the top of the ticket. It's not for her to set the tone and strategy of the campaign, that's up to Senator McCain. It is Senator McCain who is failing the GOP and the conservatives around the country, although we conservatives never really expected much from him. Of the two candidates on the Republican ticket, it is Palin, not McCain, who excites the party faithful. It is Palin, not McCain who draws the crowds and opens the wallets of the conservative base. Yet you feel she has failed?

As for her relations with the media - what more can she really do? She sat down with Gibson and Couric and they chose to make a mockery of her and of their avowed profession. Rather than perform journalism they performed show trials that would have made the Soviets blush. Whenever she speaks, all the media can report on is what she wore and how she did her hair. If you look through the photos the press pool takes at any of her public events, you'll see numerous pictures of Sarah Palin's feet - more specifically her calves, feet, and shoes. I see very few photos of Joe Biden's feet. The mainstream media in this campaign has completely jettisoned its longstanding support of equality for women and has instead embraced the sexist canard that the Governor of Alaska is just a cute, empty-headed housewife who isn't entitled to be taken seriously. And this is Sarah Palin's fault?

Peggy, you expect so much from Sarah Palin. In fact, you expect more from her than you seem to expect from the Democratic nominee for President. Senator Obama hasn't exactly made a habit of sitting down with critical or even skeptical members of the press corps and providing honest answers to tough questions. Instead he provides platitudes and evasions and relies upon his supporters in the media to spin and shape the reporting in the best possible light. If the American people actually elect this guy they are going to be in for some really big surprises come January, because he has never really been pinned down on what he intends to do. "Change" is a nice campaign promise, because every listener can hear what they want from it. But not all change is good.

It is unfair to blame Governor Palin for not saving John McCain's candidacy. John McCain was always a poor choice to carry the GOP banner. He is a great man and an American hero. But he's not much of a conservative, he's too old, and he's a captive of the Washington establishment. It's to Governor Palin's credit that she was able to create some excitement about his candidacy when there was none before she was selected. John McCain might have been able to find a more "qualified" running mate, but I don't think he could have found a VP nominee that would have actually helped him garner more support from the voters.

Peggy, I share the frustration you must feel that Governor Palin was not able to come into the game from off the bench and save the day for John McCain. But I think it's unfair to label her a failure. John McCain and his campaign managers may have failed (we'll find out soon enough). The "journalists" covering the campaign have certainly failed the American people. They are going to need a long hot shower to wash off the guilt and shame of their partisan behavior when this is over. But Governor Palin did not fail.

And it's not over yet. The Obama campaign is planning their victory party, but they know that they are still vulnerable. They're nervous enough that they are ripping Joe the Plumber to shreds just for having the gall to ask the exalted one a pointed question about taxes. One or two more revealing remarks about "spreading the wealth around" could turn the race around. They're nervous enough that they are still trying to register as many felon and dead people to vote as they can get away with before the FBI knocks on the door. The polls are all in Obama's favor. But the polls are run by the same media organizations that are campaigning openly for Obama. The polls query samples of 800 Democrats and 600 Republicans and shout that Obama has an unassailable 4-point lead. But those are not representative samples of the American electorate.

It's certainly fair to be disappointed that John McCain's campaign has not performed better, that they haven't effectively communicated their message and that they haven't effectively exposed the true agenda of the Obama campaign. But should the blame for that be put at the feet of the old Washington hand and his old Washington handlers? Or should we blame instead the rookie from Alaska?

You CAN Have it All! (Sarah Palin for V.P.)

I wrote a few days ago about Barack Obama's blunder in picking Joe Biden to be his Vice-Presidential running mate, and about how it presented John McCain a huge opportunity to blow the race wide open.

Well, McCain seized the opportunity and selected a near-ideal running mate in Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The knock on Governor Palin will be that she's a little inexperienced, especially at the Federal level and in foreign policy. But everything else is is upside. She's a woman, a working mom with five kids, and as a former mayor and current Governor she has more EXECUTIVE experience than Obama and Biden combined. She also has strong credentials as a reformer and for reaching out for bi-partisan solutions (she's a uniter, not a divider!). She has strong conservative credentials and values. It also doesn't hurt that she's a very attractive woman, and in fact is America's Hottest Governor.

Hillary! supporters generally came in two flavors. One group loves Hillary! because she is a doctrinaire, fire-breathing liberal who hews to Democrat orthodoxy as consistently as anyone. Sarah Palin isn't going to lure many of those voters into the GOP fold in November. But there's a significant portion of Hillary! supporters who have backed her primarily because she is a woman. To those voters Sarah Palin presents a unique opportunity (not available in the Democrat party) to advance the cause of women by putting a woman a heartbeat away from the Presidency. A woman in the White House, not by marriage, but on her own merit. John McCain and Sarah Palin don't need to sway all those Hillary! voters, or even a majority of them. But if 10-15% of those voters decide to cast their votes for the party that walks the walk on equal opportunity, Sarah Palin will be the next Vice-President of the United States.

Sarah Palin's position as Governor of Alaska and as the Republican nominee for the Vice-Presidency fulfills the promise that the womens liberation movement has been making to American women for a generation: You can have it all. You can be a good wife and mother and still have a career. You can be a wife and mother of five and become the Governor of Alaska and Vice-President of the United States. And look darn good doing it! Well, at least you can have all those things if you're a Republican!

Joe Biden as "Change You Can Believe In." Is this a joke?

So the candidate for "change" brings us as his Vice-Presidential running mate the guy whose picture is in the dictionary under "Washington Establishment." Is Obama going to change his entire campaign message?

Barack Obama so loves himself that he chose as his running mate a higher-mileage version of ... Barack Obama. Both are guys who were elected to the Senate as young men with winning smiles and almost no real-world experience. Both are guys whose arrogance is only exceeded by their self-conceit.

I take that back - nothing exceeds Joe Biden's arrogance.

The "change" candidate - he's a uniter, not a divider - brings us a V.P. candidate who was protagonist in two of the most shameful and bitter partisan battles of our generation, the confirmation hearings of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

The selection of Joe Biden by the Democrat nominee also tells us a lot about the Democrats as a party. A ticket comprised of two sitting United States Senators, two Washington insiders, tells us that Democrats truly believe that Washington D.C. is the center of the American universe and the seat of all political wisdom. Democrats believe that the answers to all our nation's problems must proceed from Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Not from Main Street, and certainly not from Wall Street.

The other problem with two U.S. Senators on a ticket (or in the White House) is that Senators are used to solving problems using the tools of the Senate. There's no problem that can't be fixed with a committee, a hearing, a speech, or a new law. Senators operate by committee. They debate, they deliberate, they vote. They don't decide, they don't lead, they don't take risks. They mull issues over, staff them to death, read position papers, and table them. Senators aren't the stuff great Presidents are made of. That's partly why so few Presidents have come directly out of the Senate.

In addition to all of the above, Joe Biden also brings his considerable personal baggage of plagiarism, dishonesty, and hubris. Links to a couple of good pieces on that here and here.

In picking Joe Biden as his choice for Vice-President, Barack Obama may well have just handed the November election to John McCain. By picking Biden, Obama completely undercuts his most persuasive credential - that he is a candidate for change, bringing a new kind of politics to Washington. That just looks silly now. His ticket is now just another product of the Democrat Party establishment in Washington. There's no cross-over appeal there.

In picking Biden, Obama also manages to validate the campaign of John McCain. Two of McCain's biggest vulnerabilities are the charges that he's too old and that he's too establishment. Well Biden is nearly as old as McCain and has even more time in Washington than McCain. As an added bonus, Biden is on the record having said in the past that McCain is the only guy on the Republican side who is qualified to be President, and he's also said that Obama is NOT ready to be President.

John McCain can seize this moment and blow this race wide open if he can tap as his Vice-Presidential choice someone who is not a creature of Washington politics and who can provide some cross-over appeal to wobbling Democrats. He needs someone who has some youthful vigor (relative to him), and some executive experience either in the business world or as a state governor. If his choice were a woman who could woo unhappy Hillary! voters, so much the better. About the only way McCain can screw this up is to select another old, white guy from Washington. This isn't John McCain's first rodeo. He won't screw it up.