From Other Sites on the Line: 30 Aug 08

The Hope And Change That Governor Sarah Palin Brings

Cross posted from Political Vindication

Written by: Shane Borgess on Saturday, August 30th, 2008

So the fight card is set. The cherubic Barack Obama and his lyre Joe Biden levitate in one corner, the warrior John McCain and his velvet glove Sarah Palin in the other. The next 66 days we’re going to watch everyone else try to crawl between the ropes to become a part of the fight, and before it’s done, will we really be able to say that the candidates won or lost the race themselves? Certainly not, it’s the media who calls out the commentary, and they’ll tell us what they think is important, and expect us to make our decisions influenced by what they offer. But there is hope. Americans have lost faith in the media, and feel they have overplayed their hand in their shameless submission to the messiah Obama. That’s why I think the Sarah Palin pick might just be allowed to become as effective as it is groundbreaking.
The Palin pick by McCain was a gutsy move, but a longer look at it unlocks the mystery behind it. It took John McCain decades to realize he hated what he saw in Washington, and his ‘Maverick’ title was an anointing by conniving journalists who saw in him a contrast they could foist upon their ideological enemies, the Republicans. But Sarah Palin, from a lowly valley in a frozen state, is herself more a representation of what this country has been clamoring for than any of the candidates we’ve met thus far; she’s fought corruption in her own party, demanded integrity in government, and understands issues like energy and government waste. She also relates to millions of American families, and the women within them - the largest voting bloc today, because she is still raising four of her five children, her oldest son having joined the military and now headed to Iraq. Some complain about her inexperience, but ironically no one on either ticket has the experience she has leading a state. The executive branch insists on a resume that includes knowing the system and leading the system. John McCain knows, and Sarah Palin has led.
The Palin pick also holds as of yet unseen benefits and advantages. The Obama campaign is notoriously shrill and unprofessional, and we’ve seen them time and again fashion attacks that have boomeranged back to hurt them (the ‘how many houses do you’ own attack is an example). It’s a good bet that they will swing for Palin and end up estranging women voters, and a few percentage points there in our direction may well be all we need. Concerning the issues that are foremost on voter’s minds; energy, healthcare and the economy, Governor Palin brings empathy to the ticket as a woman and a mother. It also helps that she comes from a small town (another attack by the Obama camp - what are they thinking?). America is covered in little towns, and none of them think highly of the Northeastern elites talking down to them.
A long lasting benefit of the Palin pick will be the effect it may have on the demographic change that the Republican party needs to make. We are battling a media template that belittles the Republican party as the party of the white man. For all the arguing we may do to deny that label, nothing works so well as action. The Republican party has always been the party of small town values. Of individualism and respect for religion, of tradition and skepticism of the bureaucrat and the party boss that sends him. John McCain is deemed the maverick because he rebels against DC values. The American people have been driven to abandon both parties because of the belief that those inside the system will never allow change. In the rubric of Hope and Change, the Republican ticket offers more of it. We’ll see if that translates.
Let’s go through some of the other Democrat arguments against Governor Palin. They’re saying the choice by McCain shows desperation, as if choosing a woman is unRepublican, and furthermore a woman from a state most liberals can’t find on a map equals desperation. But that argument makes no sense - if McCain was desperate he would have chosen the most popular, rich and beguiling running mate available - like a Romney or a Cantor. Instead he chose a little known female governor from a hardly populated state. That’s may be crazy, but it isn’t desperation. Next, the Obamacon throng is whining about an ‘affirmative action’choice, intimating that she isn’t qualified because she was only chosen for her gender. They prove what conservatives have been saying since affirmative action became the political bribe most favored by the Democrats - it trivializes competence to fill quotas - but you notice that they were willing to force minorities to endure the insult! Lastly, as NOW argues, Sarah Palin is too pro-life, too religious and too conservative, and any women that votes for her is voting against a woman’s interest. What about the interests we all share? Isn’t 40 million abortions enough by now that we can start voting in favor of the child’s interest? Why should the religious have their influence blocked when secular extremists are allowed to thrive? We’ve had 50 years of rampaging liberalism, which has morphed in an anti-American leftism spawning increased drug use, illegitimacy, family breakdown and widespread education failure. Isn’t it time we got back to our conservative values and saved this country?
The country is rebelling against the direction this country is taking, and who can blame them, we all can agree that there are trends dividing America that we don’t like. The campaign that started out as a challenge to the status quo has become a caricature of sterile, staid machine that promises to give us more of the gruel we despise. Obama’s choice of slow Joe Biden pulls him back toward Washington DC, and there’s nothing to suggest that anyone on that ticket has ever challenged the system they have profited from. The Republicans have stolen the Democrats mantra. Let’s hope that change now means a move back toward conservatism and accountability.
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A note from Radarsite: Thank you Shane Borgess for your intelligent and incisive analysis. And also thank you for that optimism, that welcome optimism, based not on wishful thinking, but on cool clear-headed reasoning. She was an inspired choice. - rg