Your (Very Special Edition) Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
by DemFromCT
What's the reaction to the 3rd-and-21 paper-thin resume Buchanan-supporting creationist from Alaska? I thought about posting this at 3 am, but I can't stay up that late.
Start with NRO:
Like many Americans, she says “Eye-rack” and “Eye-ran” (for two neighboring countries in the Middle East). Some people mock this, but it is very American. And — speaking of mockery — she also says “nuke-u-lar”: like George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter (who was a nuclear engineer), and Eisenhower.
Newsweek has posted some video from an interview with Sarah Palin from March of this year. I have to say, the more I see of her the more I like the pick.
The second video, where she says Hillary Clinton shouldn’t whine so much, would have to be my favorite.
Mark Hemingway: The Base Has Spoken and they likee.
Conservative Evangelical here. Long time NR subscriber and on line viewer. Reagan alt. delegate in 1976 and simply thrilled with the pick. Huckabee first choice. Palin a close second. Brilliant move on McCain's part. Kathryn J. Lopez said this may be the day the conservatives reclaimed our party. Cudos to Big Mac, the next President. Best wishes to NR.
And now the grown-ups:
McCain demonstrated that he was willing to throw a long ball, a Hail Mary pass in an election in which more than eight in 10 Americans say they are dissatisfied with the country's direction.
Come to think of it, he also demonstated that he felt he had to.
Peter Canellos: Well, she's different.
Like Walter Mondale in 1984, who put the first woman on a major-party ticket, John McCain, in choosing the second one today, is looking for a game-changing moment, a way to persuade voters to look at him in a different light.
Risky, but different. Gee, I wonder why he thought he had to do it?
Palin Appointed A Sexual Harasser
She didn't know about his record because he wasn't vetted. But it's part of the somewhat funny and very obscure politics of a small state with a wild frontier. The photo above is from Palin's hometown, Wasilla. Here's a blog-post from a proud Alaskan who nonetheless is gob-smacked that McCain thought Palin suitable for high office.
What follows is a blog post that "is not exactly encouraging about Palin's management skills".
In picking Palin, McCain is taking a calculated risk. She is totally unknown and untested on the national stage but also has impressive credentials in her short time in public life.
Of Palin, former White House political svengali Karl Rove said this morning on Fox News Channel: "It would be a clear sign from the McCain campaign that they were going to be making a very strong bid for the women whom they see up for grabs -- both the traditional, swing independent suburbanites and then the Hillary Clinton supporters who remain disillusioned."
John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate will either turn out to be a brilliant way for the Republican to scramble the race in his favor — or a disastrous pick that is cast as a desperate act.
On the face of it, McCain has failed the ultimate test that any presidential candidate must face in picking a running mate: selecting someone who is unambiguously qualified to be president.
I picked desperate this am on MSNBC. I thought it was awful. But let me try and walk it back. Nah, I can't.
Some of his closest advisers have looked at polling data for many months and reached the conclusion that the national environment is so grim for the Republican Party that McCain can only win the election with a series of bold moves. Palin is clearly intended to help with voters who want change, voters who think America is on the wrong track, and voters who have soured on President Bush.
Posted August 29th, 2008 10:15 PM by Syndicated
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