Month: September 2008

Sarah might not have been a member of the Alaska Independence Party, but it appears that Todd Palin was. Here’s a flavor of the rhetoric of its founder:

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

"And I won’t be buried under their damn flag," Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. "I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."

Christopher Orr gets an e-mail from a good friend and a lifelong Alaskan. The last few paragraphs:

What the Republicans missed about Sarah Palin then–and what the Democrats seem poised to miss now–is that she is a true political savant; a candidate with a knack for identifying the key gripes of the populace and packaging herself as the solution. That keen political nose has enabled her to routinely outperform her resume. Nearly two years into her administration, she still racks up approval ratings of 80 per cent or better.

One might reasonably ask to what extent her local popularity is buoyed by the high price of oil (and thus, a budget surplus, and thus, the ability to carry a stick into meetings with big oil). One might speculate about the durability of her anti-corruption stance in light of her conflict of interest in the dismissal of her director of public safety. And only the truly feckless would not concern themselves about her dearth of foreign policy experience. But in probing this candidate, it would behoove the Democrats and the pundits to shed the notion that they are dealing with some dimwitted bumpkin (Dan Quayle seems to come up a lot lately) who’s going to start crying when they ask her to name the president of Azerbaijan; or that Palin is the townie who was brought into the Skull & Bones initiation night for the amusement of all; or that somehow the prom queen ballots got mixed up with the Alaska gubernatorial poll. Trivialize her at your own peril.

Sarah Palin is a living reminder that the ultimate source of political power in this country is not the Kennedy School or the Davos Summit or an Ariana Huffington salon; even now, power emanates from the electorate itself. More precisely, power in 2008 emanates from the working class electorates of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Sooner or later, the Obama camp will realize that the beauty pageant queen is an enormously talented populist in a year that is ripe for populism. For their own sake, it had better be sooner.

“The vetting process was completely thorough and I’m grateful for the results,” – John McCain.

According to the Mudflats blog in Alaska,

This is from Ed Kalnins, the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God. Palin attended here for most of her adult life, until her new affiliation with a similar church in the state’s capitol, Juneau:

What you see in a terrorist — that’s called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what’s going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. … We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die. You’re worried about getting hurt? He’s called us to die. Listen, you know we can’t even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. … I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say “war mode.” Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he’s like the good shepherd, he’s loving all the time and he’s kind all the time. Oh yes he is — but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

Bush talks about Palin.

Josh Green:

Here in St. Paul, talk of Palin has dominated the Republican convention—even more so than cable news—and by Monday night discussion among Republican operatives and reporters had turned to whether Palin would survive or become the first running mate since Thomas Eagleton in 1972 to leave a major-party ticket. On Monday, the InTrade futures market opened trading  on whether Palin would withdraw before the election.

I have to say I’m beginning to wonder if McCain will have to withdraw. Or can they switch after the nomination? To have your first presidential decision to be this bad, and to have your decision-making process and executive skill revealed as Michael Brown-level: how can he recover?

People keep forgetting. McCain has little to no executive experience. He’s been a Congressman and Senator his whole career. He got the nomination by default. And this is the only executive decision we have to go on to judge his fitness for the office.

I mean: we have all just watched his decision-making process in real time: the whole country.

Do you really want that level of competence and thoroughness in the White House? In wartime? When making decisions about Iran and Russia? The prospect is terrifying.

Matthew Continetti is pleased:

By choosing Palin, McCain has severed his connection to the media, which always has had a soft spot for him. He has set the conservative grass-roots on fire with excitement. He stepped on Obama’s huge speech at Invesco field. He has the entire country comparing the Democratic presidential nominee to McCain’s choice for vice president – a subtle reduction of Obama’s stature. McCain’s campaign has raised, to date, close to $10 million since he named his choice for vice president. Not bad for a day’s work.

If you want to read a deeper discussion that helps explain why the GOP is now in a public mental breakdown, I remain proud of my 2006 book, "The Conservative Soul," which was widely scorned and reviled by the right when it wasn’t outright ignored. If you want to know why a once decent, honorable, if erratic figure like John McCain came to pick a total unknown with a Down Syndrome baby as his replacement as war-president, you have to understand the immense importance of the Christianist base. McCain isn’t one of them, however much he tries to re-tell his life-story to make it so. They know it, he knows it, and he needed a religious running mate. He might have succeeded with Pawlenty, who is a solid pick that a mature and responsible campaign would have selected in a heartbeat.

Instead – partly out of insane cynicism (did he really believe Hillary’s voters would switch over to vote for Palin?), partly out of a shallow liking for a shallow reading of Palin’s record, and partly out of pure negligence – he picked Palin, barely knowing her. And so religious fundamentalism, as it always will, swamps the frontal cortex required for effective governance and gives us this reality show disgrace as serious politics. Has America really come to this?

Yes it has. The debate over whether the Republican party is now unfit for public office at a national level is now resolved. The longer, deeper explaination for this is in my book. One day, we will revive real conservatism. Right now, we have to ensure that this insane circus masquerading as a serious political party is defeated.

Domenico Montanaro:

…if there’s one thing she’s done that’s a negative that has nothing to do with the vetting process or her own issues like the revelation of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy, it’s that she’s taken the focus off of Obama. It seems like it’s been a month — though it’s been just a few days — that the RNC or McCain hasn’t had a sustained attack on the Illinois Democrat. As we’ve learned this summer, when this campaign is about Obama, the race is a lot closer than when it’s not about him. And right now, thanks to Palin, it’s not about him.

Dave Barry:

And now the eyeballs of the nation turn to this quintessentially Middle American or possibly southern Canadian city, where in the next few days, weather permitting, the Republicans will answer the Democratic Party’s call for change by sounding, loud and clear, their own bold campaign theme for 2008: ‘What, YOU Never Made a Mistake?

(Hat tip: Matthew Continetti)