MyDD :: DAVID FRUM: Palin the irresponsible choice?

DAVID FRUM: Palin the irresponsible choice?

by January 20, Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 04:33:23 AM EST

Not all the Conservatives are completely bonkers.

David Frum is someone I normally detest in a very special way. Today's column is well worth a read for more than this: Ms. Palin's experience in government makes Barack Obama look like George C. Marshall. The full column @ http://www.nationalpost.com/nationalpost /story.html?id=756704 , read it for yourselves.

After the bump I'll save you the trek to The Corner for his quick take, which is also rather savoury.

The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing.

John McCain wanted a woman: good.

He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally.

He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart.

And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency "on day one."

Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I'd guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.

Here's I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign's slogan is "country first." It's a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Tags: Sarah Palin, John McCain, VP, Convention (all tags)

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Re: DAVID FRUM: Palin the irresponsible choice? (2.00 / 1)

1/20,

Great find! Yeah, Frum really irks me also. I'm sort of stunned that he said this.

He's usually party line.

Could the cracks be showing this quickly?

"Can We Build It? Yes We Can!" - Bob the Builder

by Stipes on Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 04:51:32 AM EST

A Few Cracks (none / 0)

If Frum only irks you I can't imagine how you'd describe Ponnuru. There are a few cracks & even more from "unnamed Repubs", but I imagine we'll here mostly supportive words in the coming weeks. After all the party (officials) have got no choice but to suck it up & back her. Of course if things start going south look for a lot of public caterwauling.

Cold Water on Palin [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Both the pros and the cons are pretty obvious. I'm going to focus on the cons, mostly because conservatives right now seem to be paying them less attention.

The pros: She's a pro-life conservative reformer from outside Washington, and a woman. The pick signals a boldness and willingness to mix things up that the McCain campaign, like Republicans generally, need.

The cons:

Inexperience. Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain's decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain's age raised the stakes on this issue.

As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Conservatives are pointing out that it is tricky for the Obama campaign to raise the issue of her inexperience given his own, and note that the presidency matters more than the vice-presidency. But that gets things backward. To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins.

And it's not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either. (On the other hand, as Kate O'Beirne just told me, we know that Palin will be ready for that 3 a.m. phone call: She'll already be up with her baby.)

Tokenism. Can anyone say with a straight face that Palin would have gotten picked if she were a man?

Compatibility. It doesn't seem as though McCain knows Palin well. Do we have much reason to think they would work well together?

Debates. Maybe, as Jonah said the other day, Biden will look like a bully going up against her--and maybe she'll shine. But I can think of a lot of other picks who would have been lower-risk.

I am not even sure that the pick will have quite the galvanizing effect on conservatives that it seems to be having now as it sinks in. The concerns I've mentioned here--about her readiness and her credentials--are the kind of thing that many conservative voters take seriously.

Now, as I said, there are pros too. Maybe Palin will be a terrific candidate and vice president. But let's not underestimate the potential downside.

A drink whenever Palin makes a Well-argued, Semantically Intact, Logical and Lucid Argument -- or WASILLA for short.

by January 20 on Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 06:17:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: DAVID FRUM: Palin the irresponsible choice? (none / 0)

David Frum was an idiot and he is still an idiot. His "responsible" leaders got us into the Iraq war. Can an "irresponsible choice" be any worse? All she has to do is hire an experience staff to handle the detail oriented nature of some tasks. Experience is only good if the judgement is there. Palin seems to be a no nonsense person if you like her extreme ideology. I dread seeing Palin in DC because she seems to have the will to sell her fundamentalism.

Sure Obama has more experience than Palin. But he is not competing against Palin. I disagreed with the whole experience is all that matters argument the McCainners used. What I want to see in a President is leadership. I congratulate Mccain in thinking outside the box. There were safer choices out there if McCain wanted a woman to pander to the Hillary voters. I see this more of a way to pander to the republican base because he would have lost the 2008 election for sure with the total lack of enthusiasm from the base resulting in a low turnout. And Bush was an unqualified fool.

mcCain is an irresponsible fool. But not because he selected Palin. Because he is on board such ridiculous wars such as the iraq invasion. People like Frum obviously do not feel that way.

by Pravin on Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 11:13:31 AM EST

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