McCain’s Thanking the Political Gods Sarah Snidely is by his Side
05 September 2008 7:00 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
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McCain’s lucky he’s not out there alone. Reviewing his dismal speech last night seems almost mean. That’s how flat it was, right up until the end. It’s always good to have a rousing finish. Michael Gerson was particularly brutal.
“The policy was the problem, the policy in the speech was rather typical for a Republican, pretty disappointing. It didn’t do a lot of outreach to moderates and independents on the issues that they care about. It talked about issues like drilling and school choice, which was really speaking to the converted. I think that was a missed opportunity. Many Americans needed to hear from this speech something they’ve never heard from Republicans before and in reality a lot of the policy they’ve heard from Republicans before.”
Frankly, as bad as McCain is at speaking, they should have thrown it out and done anything but what they did. It didn’t reach any independents, talk about anything new, or offer anything innovative.
However, Sarah Palin made her party proud this week in a
speech that delivered her to star status. It took twenty-four years to catch
up, but the Republican Party finally nominated someone nationally who isn’t
a white guy. Congratulations on joining the 20th century.
She just
should have delivered it without the condescension, sarcasm and snide. Then
there was the small town vs. civic pride, which always seems to raise
that divide when Republicans are involved. Palin mocking Obama’s community
organizing activist roots. Does Sarah have a clue what
community organizers do in cities across this country? Especially in inner
city neighborhoods, whose people can’t survive without them? That was just the
beginning of Sarah’s snidely smackdowns.
Then there was the, well, let’s just call it cutting hyperbole. The AP began
compiling what is likely
to be a long list:
PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening
to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two
memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state
senate.”FACT: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have
a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation
that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction
and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became
law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work
of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice
in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures
in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings
of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored
major ethics reform legislation.
But there was good news too. Republican elites can relax, while the conservative
base basks in the babe who takes the senior out of the senator. McCain’s hail
Mary Palin can deliver a speech. No, strike that. She can deliver two speeches.
The beginning was a brisk tour of things surrounding her life, which unfolded
quickly. Then came the other part of the speech, which was concocted by some
Bush speechwriter for some unknown vice presidential nominee who would stand
in and deliver. She sounded like Patrick J. Buchanan in a dress.. er
skirt. Great for the rank and file, which needed a shot and got it. Not so good
for everyone else. Especially voters who sent a message during the primary season
that they’re not exactly in the mood for partisan sarcasm, even when delivered
with a smile.
Now for the bad news. It’s no wonder Sarah targeted the press, because since
McCain sprung her on the public we’ve been scurrying for facts. Oh, and digging
up the truth, even as the McCain campaign plans on hiding Sarah from any
hard interview scrutiny. Because the facts don’t help Mrs. Palin, which is likely
why she stayed away from them, offering some easily rebutted rhetoric.
Reformer is just a label Palin picked up for political purposes. McCain
targeted Sarah Palin’s “objectionable” earmarks long before he
ever tapped her for veep.
“So while Sen. McCain was going after cutting earmarks in Washington,”
said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, “Gov. Palin was going
after getting earmarks.”
Palin even boasted about her earmarks, saying “We
did well!!!” Oh, and “FYI This does not include our nearly
one million Dollars from the Feds for our Airport Paving Project,”
Sarah
continued.
On another note, as McClatchy
reported last Friday, trying to prove she can handle the job of presidency,
Palin pushed her National Guard leadership role. It was pure fantasy, which
was driven home by Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell who is in charge out there:
“Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of
the Alaska National Guard?” CNN journalist Campbell Brown asked Monday
while interviewing McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Just one?”Bounds couldn’t, because Palin has never personally ordered the state guard
to do anything.…the governor has no command authority overseas or anywhere in
the United States other than Alaska, said Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the service
commander of the Alaska National Guard.
Then there’s that “Bridge to Nowhere” fabrication, which she offered
up again this week, but was first hoisted
on an unsuspecting public last Friday:
“I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere,”
Palin said Friday in Ohio, using the critics’ dismissive name of the project.
“‘If our state wanted a bridge,’ I said, ‘we’d build it ourselves.’”
Not quite.
While running for governor in 2006, though, Palin backed federal funding
for the infamous bridge, which McCain helped make a symbol of pork barrel
excess.
Palin might just redefine “reformer.”
But none of this matters to Republicans. They have their Republican Red Bull,
as Rev. Richard Land said. They’ve also got Sarah Palin religion.
It remains to be seen whether the throwback snidely sarcasm of Sarah’s speech
will reach beyond the Republican base, which is the only way McCain
can win. The good news on that front is that Palin is very attractive and can
perform with the best of them and she’s becoming a political rock star the GOP
hasn’t had in a very long time. She’ll draw thousands across the country. She’s
now the one everyone will want to see.
This post originally published for PJM.
