Sorry for the delay in posting, I was out of the country on a trip.
Well now, it's been about a month since the announcement that Sarah Palin will be John McCain's vice-presidential nominee. If you had asked me the day before the announcement whether or not the VP selection could get me excited about the Republican ticket, I'd have said, "no way". VP's don't matter, and I couldn't think of a single person who could change that. But then she did. I worried that I was just swept along with the moment and that it would all wear off in a week, but I continue to be optimistic about her. Why?
Because she may just be different enough, strong enough, and conservative enough to win the presidency on her own after 4 years as McCain's VP. And that's saying something. I worried before in an earlier post (here) that no matter who McCain's VP was, "he" would be weakened by the 4 years as McCain's VP. That's still the case, but her personality is so strong, and she is so unafraid of saying what she thinks, that she may yet be able to rise above his moderation with her conservatism. Where a run of the mill VP would have to go out and help sell the socially liberal-but less expansive!!- ideas of McCain and never live them down when they fail, she may very well just give those a pass and only sell what she likes. I can hear in my head her speeches 4 years from now saying that "No, in fact I don't agree with everything he did, but he's a good man and I served my country by doing my job as VP well; now lets see what I can do when I'm in charge!"
It's funny to me that it took a woman to show Republican men (especially her future boss) how to talk to and about Democrats. There is no reason at all to be afraid of the Left, and yet the Right tucks tail again and again. When George Bush gets an approval rating of 25%, you can bet money that while 45%-ish of the disapproval numbers are Dems who don't like him, the other 30 or-so percent is made up of Republicans who are mad that he keeps giving in. If I answered polls (I don't), I'd be in the disapproving column too. Conventional wisdom would say that must be due to Iraq and Bush's cowboy mentality with the economy. Not even close. I'm mad that he tried to get amnesty for illegals, threw more wasted money at failing public schools, and never continued to sell a perfectly legitimate war in Iraq. He's a good man, but not much of a leader, and too liberal for my tastes. The point is that moving left will not help Republicans when the votes they are losing are from the right. Palin gets this. In her speech at the convention, she never accepted the premises of the left. She was aggressive, she attacked, and she laid out her position clearly. She is exactly what we need, and I hope against hope that she survives the next four years without compromising away that clarity of purpose and morality that excited me and millions like me. As Rush Limbaugh never fails to point out, Liberalism is always the easy answer. Conservatism is much harder, and it requires constant education. Sarah Palin is clearly a great teacher.
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Why all the names?
So, why all the pseudonyms? Well, in the first place, this is a political site, and my job just isn't conducive to public opinions about our national leaders. That'll likely change in a year or two when I hope to start my own business, but until then it's probably a good idea to not advertise who I am. As for why there are three names (moral hedonist, misanthropic humanist, and constantine magildahyde...) well, there are three different explanations. I'd like the whole thing to be the Misanthropic Humanist, but that address was already taken. Moral Hedonist is more descriptive of who I am, rather than the misanthropic humanist which is a world-view. Constantine Magildahyde is just what happened one day when I tried to get a good email address with my real first and last name and it said that was already taken. Well, I can't tell you what that is yet, but for now you'll have to take my word for it that there's no possible way. So anyway, I got mad and typed in the weirdest name I could think of. Unfortunately that worked, and it's been my email address for years.
Not to worry! Looks like you don't even have to wait four years to see if Palin will compromise on her conservatism. She is already getting weaker and weaker with each interview she gives. It shows that McCain's campaign staff has started to get to her and is trying to coach her. So instead of just letting her do what she's good at - speak truth and conservatism from her heart - they are pulling her onto the proverbial bandwagon, in this case called the "straight talk express" and in the process doing away with the advantage they had gained by nominating her.
ReplyDeleteThis week's debate will show if Sarah can stand her ground or if she has succumbed to Washington politics already which will make her irrelevant even if McCain wins this election and she won't stand a chance on her own four years from now.