Losing the Base
National Review‘s Kathleen Parker on The Palin Problem:
Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain?s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood ? a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn?t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin?s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I?ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I?ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there?s not much content there. Here?s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: ?Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we?re talking about today. And that?s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.?
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama?s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: ?I?m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who?s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who?s actually done it??
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
If Palin were a man, we?d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she?s a woman ? and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket ? we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.
What to do?
McCain can?t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP?s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
I thought it was the Left that was supposed to suffer from “PDS.”
September 29th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
What have we accomplished? We’ve shown that nobody everybody buys into the current either/or, Dem or GOP choice. We’ve shown that 3rd parties aren’t going anywhere. We’ve shown that, if they don’t get the message, we need to try harder in the future. What, you think if I vote for Obama he’s going to get the message on the RKBA? You think if I vote for McCain he’s going to get the message on cowtowing to the Religious Right?
They’re not getting the message either way. Although I could probably make a pretty decent argument that the Obama nomination represents the Dems getting a good portion of the Nader message (and that the Palin nomination is a nod to the RKBA movement, and thus a clear indication they’re getting the message that Barr could flank them there and do damage…so I think your premise is flawed anyhoo).
I don’t see the failure of 3rd party candidates to win as a sign they should hang it up. I see it as a sign that they need to persevere and keep getting the message out. I guess I don’t see where it’s written that I’m any more likely to advance the RKBA movement by being a cheap date and selling my vote to McCain for bottom dollar.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
What, you think if I vote for Obama he’s going to get the message on the RKBA? You think if I vote for McCain he’s going to get the message on cowtowing to the Religious Right?
I think that the time to argue those issues is between elections (and certainly during the primaries), not during them, when the field has already been narrowed to two. Riffing off Xrlq for a moment, I think we should play the game the way it exists, not the way we wish it existed. And yes, that means voting for the least of evils when it comes to general elections. The primaries are the time to
cut off your nose to spite your facestand on “principle” — the general election is a lousy time to do that, unless you genuinely have no preference whatsoever between the two viable candidates.And for the record, I don’t think third party candidates should “hang it up.” I think they should start small, however, and gain support at the local level. Worry about actually winning seats at some level of government instead of going for the whole enchilada (POTUS) and then effectively disappearing for another four years.
Winning and losing elections is the only thing that matters to politicians, and so when Party A loses an election, they’re not going to start looking at fringe groups to see how they can court them — they’re going to look to the middle, to see how they can court them. And most of the time, that means moving further away from the fringe groups, meaning, again, that you’ve only managed to accomplish something counterproductive.
As previously stated, in your state, it won’t matter much. But in close states, it can matter a great deal, and in those cases, the results are almost never what the third party voters really wanted.