Davey and Chris have weighed in on the Palin / Couric interview. Davey has also called me out because of my Palin enthusiasm. This is a response to all that… and more. This blog post comes with a guarantee: Everyone who reaches the end of this post will be transformed into an ardent Palin supporter.
1. Law of physics: For every hype there is an equal and opposite reaction. If Obama becomes president you’d better believe the backlash from his ardent supporters will be oh-so-fierce. Nothing he does will save the polar bears from themselves. He won’t solve our healthcare or social security problems. He can’t fix our economy, etc., etc. The more you buy into Change 2008, the more disappointed you will be. That’s what is happening to Palin. The hype was too great.
2. Did anyone read the article I linked by John Mark Reynolds? Including Obama on the ‘Obama Doctrine’? Politicians are experts at not answering questions. Obama is an expert (see the Saddleback Summit); Palin has not yet attained to the required level of BS.
3. Letting Couric interview her was a mistake. I keep thinking that the difference between boys and girls is way more important to this than anyone is talking about. Unless McCain’s retarded campaign suspension really is a ploy to keep Palin from the debates, I think Palin would make Biden look like a jerk no matter what she said.
4. We’ve already had a VP who was smart and did stuff: Dick Cheney. Who wants another VP like that? I certainly don’t. Despite her deft careerism, Palin doesn’t seem to have vaunting ambition. For that reason I think she is an idealistic, naive, “Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington” type. Which leads to the second point:
5. Being VP or President doesn’t require a genius. It requires someone with a moral compass. Surround her with smart people and let her use her common sense. I’d take Dan Quayle over every president since Reagan.
BONUS POINT: Rod Dreher is a dork. Apparently being a ‘thinking conservative’ just means you’re willing to turn on every conservative who isn’t perfect.
GRAND OLD PARTY FOREVER! DEATH TO INDEPENDANTS AND CABLE NEWS PUNDITS!
Thanks for your time. Thoughts?
Why do I even comment? I should just shut-up and let Austin do the defending. Not only is he more entertaining, but he just won me over.
Good to have you back, bro.
Mr. Hyde, what have you done with Dr. Jekyll?
1. Granted.
4, 5. A VP doesn’t doesn’t do very much, but what they do is important. They have some provision of leadership over congress; Palin’s inability to BS and her relative inexperience with legislation renders her pretty useless in this regard, but we rarely remember VPs for what they do congressionally. This is a throwaway point.
The greater concern for me is her potential presidency. It’s oft repeated these days that McCain is reasonably likely to die while in office – at his age, Insurance companies would give it a 33% likelihood, especially in light of his medical history. If McCain dies, we have a naive, idealistic president who has proven herself to be utterly unable to answer basic questions in a casual interview context.
Martin Luther is sometimes quoted as saying that he would rather be ruled by a Wise Turk than a Foolish Christian. Palin presumably has her purity down (though we’ve been given some reason to doubt even that), but she doesn’t appear to be shrewd. We are to be innocent as doves and crafty as serpents. I am not willing to give Palin a pass just because she represents, in some vague sense, the first qualification.
Dreher has not turned on Palin because she is not perfect. Dreher has turned on Palin because she has consistently fallen back on shallow and incomplete talking points. It’s not that she interviews poorly, it’s that she has not even begun to demonstrate the depth of conviction that is required of a respectable Christian politician. She is toeing the party line, spouting Neocon Zombie Platitudes ground into her by her handlers. And she hasn’t even done that with grace, composure, or confidence. She is floundering.
Dreher doesn’t turn on folks easily. His social theory allows him to respect and learn from folks from various religious backgrounds and pretty disparate political leanings. Dreher’s whole schtick is that the world is Sacramental: real objects have spiritual meaning in our world. This means that the food we eat, homes we build, and communities we live in have direct and abiding influence on our spiritual health.
Dreher has become disappointed because Palin has proven, in the first few interviews at least, to have none of that vigorous Christianity in her politics. Listen to the interviews. She has become a McCain puppet, and in imperfect one at that. The strings snapped in this last debate, and she became utterly limp.
Remember, Bush represented much of the same to many of us. We have learned that good intentions aren’t nearly enough in US politics. Moreover, we’ve learned that intentions may actually be entirely inscrutable to us. Naive politicians start wars and run our economy into the ground. Naive politicians think that mere proximity to Russia prepares them to handle another potential Cold War.
Couric wasn’t a mistake. Couric was a failure. Palin needs to interview, needs scrutiny, and needs a lot of hard questions in a very short period of time. If Palin can’t manage to support her own glib assertions about McCain and the American public in a very cordial interview, how on earth will she handle Putin, Chavez, Ahmenijhad? Obama has at least endured a grueling primary process, the Republican War Machine, and Bill O’Reilly.
Remember, 33%. Don’t support the woman because she gives you warm fuzzies, or even because she carried a disabled child to term. She has done commendable, even respectable things, but I am wholly terrified to have another ignorant, idealistic president.
Despite my scathing invective against her, I’m still waiting. When she manages to show even the slightest bit of care, tact, or deep thinking about her platform, I’ll be willing to give her a pass.
Until then, I continue to lament our choices come November.
Re #3: Austin, I hope you’re right about the VP debate. But honestly, I’d bet the farm (if I had one) that Palin fails miserably.
Not to say Biden won’t say something dumb. But it won’t matter.
Part of me has been rooting for Palin all along, believe it or not. But I agree with 95% of Chris’ analysis.
I’ve spent the rest of last night and quite a bit of the morning mulling over a more succinct and infinitely more damning response to Austin’s post.
It’ll be up later today. Just curious, Davey, which 5 percent do you disagree with? I myself am still pretty proud of “Neocon Zombie Platitudes.”
The 5% is my cowardice marker, my escape pod if Austin comes back with irrefutable logic.
We prolly don’t disagree at all, honestly. Although I don’t tend to stress to “Sarah the Unready” argument as much. What scares me more is her complete capitulation to McCain’s party line. Originally, conservative pundits were raising her like the Bronze Serpent as a strong counter to McCain’s less conservative policies. But it looks like she’s being the dutiful housewife, supporting her “man” in all things. So we’re left with a McCain clone, only with mammary glands. Yay.
[...] number one argument for Sarah Palin: (in response to this) A month ago our choice was Obama/Biden or McCain/___. Now it’s Obama/Biden or [...]
Austin makes me Proud to Be An American!. D, I dare you to re-read this post, with Lee Greenwood playing in the background (click the link).