The editors at The National Review are clearly in touch with reality in their praise for McCain veep pick Sarah Palin.
Let’s take a look!
By picking Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has wowed the public…
Oh, we’re wowed all right. Wowed that the campaign that has had nothing substantive to say about Barack Obama other than “he’s inexperienced” put one of the most inexperienced politicians in the country on his ticket.
Barack Obama, in my opinion, has a rather thin resume. However, he still has 8 years as an Illinois state senator and 4 years in the US senate. He’s written 2 books and given countless speeches over the past 5 years (not that books or speeches qualify one to be President, but we know where he stands on the issues, even if he changes the details). Barack has traveled all over the world and lived in Indonesia as a child. He was a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago for several years. And Obama has been under the media microscope for almost 2 years and held up incredibly well in the face of some pretty unscrupulous attacks.
On the other hand, Sarah Palin has been governor of a state with a population of under 700,000 for about 18 months. Before that she was a mayor of a town of 9000. Her first trip outside the US was to Kuwait in 2007 (though she did visit US troops, which was nice of her).
We’re wowed that John McCain picked someone that by all reports he had only met in person once before offering her the position.
We’re vowed that McCain didn’t even vet Palin enough to know she is being investigated for trying to use her power as governor to have her ex-brother in law fired after a bitter divorce.
We’re wowed that John McCain thinks so little of Hillary supporters that they will vote for any ticket that has a woman on it.
We’re wowed that he picked someone who had so little interest in the job she asked “What exactly does the Vice President DO?”
We’re wowed that a presidential candidate could show such disdain for the public’s intelligence. 21% of all US vice presidents have ascended to the office of President (8 from death, 1 from resignation, out of 43 presidents), yet this pick clearly shows he doesn’t care what is best for the country.
Oh National Review!
This paragraph is great:
We hope that the choice of Palin also signals a decisive turn toward a campaign theme of fighting for the middle class. McCain and Palin can and should say that they will fight to protect Americans from our foreign enemies, to stop liberal excesses, and to reform dysfunctional institutions. They should not accept the portrait of middle-class Americans as hapless victims that so many of the Democratic speakers this week portrayed; but they need to show that they share middle-class frustrations. Strength in foreign policy; reforms of taxes and health care geared to the middle class; and a moderate social conservatism: It’s a potentially winning message, and now Republicans have a ticket that is suited to it.
Sharing middle class frustrations? I really don’t want to go into the cliches about McCain’s multiple houses and heiress wife, or the fact that he is from a long line of privileged Navy brass, but I think it’s a stretch to say that the McCains have any idea what middle class Americans are feeling.
How are his reforms in taxes and healthcare “geared towards the middle class”????? He wants to remove any employer-subsidized health plans and give everyone a few thousand dollars a year to try and find private insurance on their own. He wants to give all Americans a smaller tax cut than Obama unless they make over $112,000 (and the difference is only a few hundred dollars until the $160,000+ bracket). As a side note, Obama doesn’t “raise taxes” until the $227,000-603,000 tax bracket, and then the increase is $12 (twelve dollars).
“Moderate social conservatism”? Is advocating a complete ban on abortion and teaching creationism in public schools, like Sarah Palin advocates, being moderate now? Holy crap.
Yeah National Review, I’d say John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin rightfully raised a few eyebrows…
