Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Sarah Palin: The left's worst nightmare


By DAVID REINHARD

I like the fact that a Vice President Sarah Palin would make history.

I like all the loaded "Does she have (lack) the experience?" questions from people who wouldn't favor her if she had John Adams' resume ... who've spent the last eight months concerned not at all with a Democratic presidential candidate's lack of experience or concrete accomplishments.

I like the comparisons with Barack Obama—a dozen years of executive experience next to his none, more executive experience than Obama and Joe Biden combined, a record of actual bipartisan achievement that's in line with her rhetoric of reform. Oh, and she gives a great speech, too.

I like the fact that Palin's selection forced Obama—who, let us recall, is running against John McCain, not Palin—to argue Tuesday that he did so have more executive experience than Palin. You see, he told CNN, he's run his own campaign for president. Running for the presidency on the strength of ... having run for the presidency. Beautiful. (The Obama campaign has 2,500 employees and the state of Alaska 15,000 in a budget of $11. 2 billion.)

I like the fact that lefty blogs were reduced to theorizing that Palin's 4-month-old was not her own baby, but her daughter's. Sick stuff, no?

I like the fact that the old media behemoths don't like Palin and that they're so bent on turning her into Dan Quayle if they cannot take her out entirely. It's so obvious it's backfiring. McCain fundraising is way up, as is his support among Republicans.

I like that the announcement that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant brought out the best in Obama ("I think people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits.") and the worst in the left-wing blogosphere ("The minute her holy roller mother accepted the Republican nomination for vice president was the minute Bristol Palin's 17-year-old, unmarried uterus ceased to be a wholly private matter."). It's helpful to see both.

I like that Palin has spotlighted the liberal sexism that plagued Hillary Clinton's campaign. It's a selective sexism—often only certain women (conservatives) are its targets—but there's been one constant this year: Any gal who gets in Obama's way finds herself under siege.

Liberal talker Ed Schultz called Palin an "empty pantsuit" who had set off a "bimbo alert." Washington Post doyenne Sally Quinn questioned whether a woman with Palin's family could be vice president and an engaged mom. CNN's John Roberts asked how much time she'd have for her 4-month-old Down syndrome son. MSNBC headlines announced that "some voters" and "some women" wondered whether Palin was taking on too much. Funny, this wasn't an issue when John Edwards announced that his wife's and young kids' mother's cancer had returned.

I like the fact that the Palins are as real as most American families, for better or worse. It's not a perfect family. No family is, and kids—one, some or all—have a way of making a mockery of a parent's best-laid plans and values, whatever they may be.

I also like the reaction of conservatives to the Palin family's situation. It makes a joke of the conventional wisdom that, as Quinn blogged, "This may be a hard one for the Republican conservative family-values crowd to swallow."

Here's what Focus on the Family evangelical James Dobson had to say: "Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration ... as I'm sure the Palins have. The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a 'hypocrite,' but all it really means is that she and her family are human." Amen.

And I like the difference between the Palins' response to her daughter's real unplanned pregnancy ("Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family") and Obama's thoughts on the hypothetical issue of one of his daughters dealing with one ("If my daughter makes a mistake, I don't want her punished with a baby.")

I like that Palin is a conservative woman in full.

You go, gal.




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