She even pull Mark out of hiding.
The hostess with the moosest [Mark Steyn]
Over in the Frumistan province of the NR caliphate, our pal David is not happy about the Palin pick. I am - for several reasons.
First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.
Second, it can't be in Senator Obama's interest for the punditocracy to spends its time arguing about whether the Republicans' vice-presidential pick is "even more" inexperienced than the Democrats' presidential one.
Third, real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign's thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).
Fourth, Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a "hinterland" - a life beyond politics. Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn't just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won't need the usual stage-managed "hunting" trip to reassure gun owners: she's lived the Second Amendment all her life. Likewise, on abortion, we're often told it's easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child? Been there, done that.
Fifth, she complicates all the laziest Democrat pieties. Energy? Unlike Biden and Obama, she's been to ANWR and, like most Alaskans, supports drilling there.
Sixth (see Kathleen's link to Craig Ferguson below), I kinda like the whole naughty librarian vibe.
corner.nationalreview.com
I'm Getting a Lot of E-mails from Women Like This One [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
To: Kathryn Lopez
Subject: So Excited!
K-Lo -
I am absolutely thrilled with McCain's choice in Palin. Her conservative values, her reform efforts, the way she worked up from being in the PTA to a governor all show that she has what it takes. She is the commander of the Alaska National Guard. She is a mom, a member of the PTA, an athlete, has worked for a living in non-political jobs. She seems like one of us. She seems like one tough cookie, yet is still incredibly likable. That is something that Hillary could never pull off. I am so excited that I sent $500 to the McCain campaign today. I would send more, but I think that is all my budget can handle right now. I am happy he picked a woman. But, I am thrilled it is this woman!
GO McCAIN PALIN 2008!!!
A Mission Accomplished [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
An e-mail from a little earlier today:
A quick review of the websites for CNN, CBS News, MSNBC, ABC News and the BBC has pictures of Palin, or McCain & Palin, but nothing on Obama from last night. Cool. |
