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30 Aug 2008 12:32 pm

The Palin Trajectory

A reader writes:

After reading through this morning's NYT with its detailed report on Palin's background I feel much more troubled about this than yesterday. The most worrisome element is certainly her "troopergate" incident.  One of the big problems with the Bush Administration has been an attitude that the institutions of government, the perks of power, are there to be exploited for partisan purposes, which frequently enough get confused with personal advantage.  McCain has promised to sweep away that sort of Republicanism with the old version that puts the notion of Honor at the core of government service. 

To be fair, Palin's record is not entirely dark--there is something very encouraging about her trajectory, from PTA to city council, to mayor to governor. But it's got a distinctly dark side, too, which suggests emotions bubbling under the surface and a willingness to abuse power against an enemy.  The next two weeks will be decisive, but I think there's more than a small chance that this woman could go the way of Harriet Miers and Tom Eagleton.

Matt Continetti provides what is, I presume, the good faith argument for the pick. McCain is forging a reform Republicanism, and Palin, in the political sewer of Alaska, was good at taking on some of the worst offenders. I'm afraid Pawlenty would have made the argument much more effectively, and has some record of interest in domestic and foreign policy outside the small boundaries of state politics.

I'm afraid that Palin's reform record is very premature - barely eighteen months in office running the equivalent of a small city - and her knowledge and even interest in foreign policy not just close to zero, but dead zero. I'm afraid there's no getting around the fact that she was picked because she's a woman (and McCain thinks Clinton female supporters are suckers for a pretty, evangelical, no-legal-abortion-ever face), because she's an evangelical (and evangelical religious faith is now a criterion somewhere on the ticket for the GOP), because it would piss off Rove and assert McCain's independence, and surprise all the pundits, and because he thought she was charming, telegenic and hot. Classic McCain. You want your foreign policy run with this level of impulsiveness, recklessness, and self-regard? You know who to vote for, but you will never know from one day to the next what you might get.

I would not be surprised if she is not the veep finally on the ticket. We'll see.

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