It’s an old, trite saying, “Being forewarned is being forearmed,” and sometimes old, trite sayings are even right.
With the havoc that Senator Clinton has wrought on the Democratic Party, and thereby on its chances for the sort of success this fall that America and the world now require, I felt that publishing an article by one of our adversaries would be helpful.
Recent polls suggest that a large proportion of the demographics that compose much of Senator Clinton’s base support, single and married white women over 50, will NOT support the Democrats if Hillary is not the nominee. The issue of the article below does not pertain to the obverse of the Clinton demographics, so I’ll not comment on them. Rather, I think it’s essential that those of us who want to see a Democrat reach the Oval Office in ’09 assemble our inventory of information concerning the panoply of things we’ll have to be informed about. In the same vein, but perhaps more stridently, it’s absolutely essential that Republican John McCain not come anywhere near the Oval Office desk, except as a guest of a Democratic president.
Beware 42-year-old Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, and face reality: few voters actually cast their ballot based on a thorough study of a candidate’s voting record or enunciated positions on arcane issues. Overwhelmingly, folks vote according to the following indices: (1.) Party affiliation, if the voter is affiliated with a particular party, and (2.) Overall likeability of the candidate.
Meet Governor Palin.
The woman is more than acceptably attractive; physically attractive to men of all ages without being threateningly so to women. She is bright. She is an authoritatively articulate, professionally practiced public speaker. Governor Palin is conservative, through and through. As a governor, she would lay claim to “executive” experience” — a resume item that has been considered important in every presidential election since Nixon; a resume plus that none of the current contenders for the high office can claim. She is the perfect running-mate to carry the heavy water for an aging John McCain.
The Human Events article below suggests Palin’s weakness is the paltry size of electoral votes she would bring to McCain. My take, however, is that the article’s proposition she is not seriously being considered for veep is an attempt to distract and deceive, like the draw play in football. She may only bring Alaska’s three electoral votes, but those are more than overwhelmingly offset by the demographics that her position on the ticket would present as wholly unearned and otherwise unanticipated gifts to the GOP. (For those who do not know, Human Events is the GOP’s ultra Rightwing publication.)
My point here is that those who regard a McCain presidency as too dangerous too think about seriously begin to seriously think about it, and what must be done to try to avoid what would be the ongoing catastrophe of the past seven years. More bluntly, the internecine squabbling provoked by the incautious comments of Hillary and Bill and Jeremiah and Michelle must cease and desist immediately.
Face it: Hillary is not going to be the Democratic Party’s candidate. But her out of control, ranting slash-and-burn, me-or-no-Democratic-candidate antics, against a united, unruffled, soothingly easy on the eyes GOP canvas that brings in disgruntled and disappointed Hillary feminists most assuredly will result in that which the country and the world needs least.
If McCain does reach his objective, I for one will not blame either McCain or anyone in the Republican Party. I will place the blame where it will belong: on the Clintonistas and on those too busy to pause momentarily from their mind-numbing pursuits of giddy unreality to research basics civics and Econ 101, to cull political reality from idealistic fantasy, and too cowardly to mix things up with family and associates.
— Ed Tubbs
McCain Veepstakes: Possible Palin?
by John Gizzi
Posted 03/27/2008 ET
Updated 03/27/2008 ET
Since John McCain captured the Republican nomination for President last month, speculation in the press mounts about who he will name as his runningmate. Possibly the most intriguing name in the “veepstakes” is that of Sarah Palin, the first-ever woman Governor of Alaska, its youngest (44) governor, and the first to have been born after Alaska became a state. A onetime beauty queen, high school athlete, and TV reporter Palin was elected mayor of Washila in 1996 and, two years ago, made national headlines by defeating present and past governors to win the state’s highest office.
Running on a solidly conservative platform and calling for Alaska to be more independent of Washington, Palin dispatched incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the 2006 GOP primary and went on to defeat former two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in the fall by a margin of 48% to 41%.
Dedicated to making her state more self-reliant and freeing Alaska from unique federal constraints placed on it when it joined the union in 1959, Palin is a stalwart conservative on cultural issues. A proud member of Feminists for Life, the governor also opposes same-sex marriage or benefits going to couples that would equate to same-sex marriage. When a state court ruled last year that civil unions are to be permitted for same sex couples, Palin called for amending the state constitution to upend the ruling and to place it on the ballots before the voters.
The attractive and articulate Palin appears to be a candidate right out of Central Casting: she and corporate executive-husband Todd have four children (eldest son Track just joined the U.S. Army and is soon expected to be deployed to Iraq) and the governor is expecting their fifth child in May. “Why can’t she just be from another state?” is a lament heard often by Republicans who feel Palin is a natural for national office, if only she weren’t from a state that is not contiguous with the continental United States and brings only three electoral votes to the electoral column.
But the speculation persists and this was one of the questions colleagues Jim Seminara and Kami Dalton pressed Gov. Palin on in a recent interview. Would she accept second spot on a ticket headed by McCain, who disagrees with the governor on drilling for oil in the Alaskan Natural Wildlife Reserve?
“I’ll tell you, I think that the possibility of this ever happening is so far out there, that it’s tough to get my arms around and even contemplate,” Palin told us, so I don’t have an answer.” But, she quickly added, “I would like to see a governor on that ticket. I do think a governor understands, being on the front lines there, serving the constituents, how to administer. I think that’s very important for a team that would be serving in the White House.”
Palin also made it clear she didn’t believe that her differences over drilling for oil in ANWR with her party’s certain presidential nominee were insurmountable. In her words, “ I think he needs a running mate who sees the light regarding resource development, and how domestic resource development can help secure the United States. I’m very encouraged by McCain’s candidacy, though, because he so understands our national security issues. Much more so, obviously, than the Democrats who are running. So there’s encouragement there, and there’s hope there. I don’t think there’s any hope for Hillary or Barack to ever want to explore this idea of allowing federal lands that happen to be in the 49th state to be opened up for development.”
On ANWR drilling, which President Bush failed to get through the Senate when it was in Republican hands, the governor is still hopeful. “We want it to happen,” she said, “Alaskans want to open up the lands for that development, for the contributions that are potential here for the rest of the US.” Palin went on to note that “it’s really a pathetic situation
“And I have to ask lawmakers in Washington, DC, who have prohibited this drilling in ANWR if they’re doing all they can to secure the United States. When you consider, too, the geology that we’re talking about here, and the physical space that’s even needed to drill now, about a 2,000 acre plot, because of directional drilling and new technology, allowing such a small footprint to even be placed upon the tundra up north, it’s about 2,000 acres, which is smaller than the size of LAX and other big-city airports, that we would need to drill, and allow these resources to finally be tapped and to flow into hungry markets, and make us more secure. I think it’s so short-sighted.”
Less than a week before our interview, Palin sent a political shockwave out from the state Republican convention in Anchorage when she endorsed Lieutenant Gov. Sean Parnell in his challenge against the state’s 35-year Republican congressman-at-large, Don Young. The governor explained that the move is part of her vision of Alaska now “in a prime position to contribute more to the United States and to quit relying on the federal government to pay our bills for us.”
As all these changes take place, she told us, “it’s going to take a change of character, and a change of personality, even, in terms of the representation that we have in Washington, D.C. coming from Alaska. Sean Parnell is, I think, a perfect person to manifest that change that is coming, that is needed, on behalf of Alaska. He wants to serve for the right reasons. He’s very selfless. And he’s very much a person taking ‘public service’ literally” -- a not-too-subtle reference to VEECO Corporation head Rick Smith, a longtime Young associate, to bribery and conspiracy charges.
As for whether she would take the same stance against 40-year Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, who is the subject of an FBI investigation as he seeks re-election, Palin would only say “I’m going to withhold judgment there. I don’t see a candidate who’s jumped into his race yet who I would feel wholeheartedly in support of at this point. So there’s still weeks, a couple months, even, to go, before we make the decision on Sen. Stevens.”
A McCain-Palin ticket in ’08? Unlikely. But Gov. Palin as a future Republican leader and politician worth watching? There’s little argument there.
John Gizzi is Political Editor of Human Events.
