And now another well-known conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker, has declared Palin unfit for the Presidency:
Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
[Kathleen Parker, "Palin Should Step Down—for Our Country," syndicated, retrieved from Whittier Daily News, 2008.09.26.]
Parker finds Palin's statements in her interviews as empty as I found them. Filibusters, deadwood, bluster... those are Parker's words, and Parker wants McCain to win.
And because she wants Palin to win, Parker makes this recommendation:
Only Palin can save McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
[Parker, 2008.09.26.]
No liberal spin here. Parker wanted to believe that Palin could prove herself. "Groundbreaking," Parker called Palin's candidacy. Palin's convention speech, said Parker, "showed... strength, conviction, determination, confidence, a willingness to rumble and fearlessness. No caribou caught in the headlights, she." [see Kathleen Parker, "Palin's Palliative," syndicated, from RealClearPolitics.com, 2008.09.05]
But now, as the headlights have stayed on, Parker has seen that initial image replaced with an absence of substance that could wreck the Republicans' chances of keeping the White House.
The McCain-* ticket may have energized one portion of the base, but it's losing another. Parker, George Will, David Brooks, David Frum... how many other leading apologists for the Republican Party will find they can no longer keep a straight face while supporting their presidential ticket?
The elitist wing of the conservative movement has always been wary of us libertarians coming into the GOP. Sarah Palin is one of the top elected libertarian Republicans in the country, (along with Idaho's Gov. Butch Otter, and Cong. Jeff Flake of AZ).
ReplyDeleteOf course, she's going to make some conservatives nervous.
They are wary of her libertarian cultural views. This is the woman, after all, who famously fought back against social conservatives in Wasilla who wanted to run all of the bars and taverns out of town.
They even started a whisper campaign in Alaska during the 2006 primaries that Sarah wasn't really a Republican, but rather a "closet libertarian." She had attended a couple local Libertarian Party meetings seeking their support.
But what she loses from the social conservatives, she gains 10 times over in libertarian votes.
Figure, Libertarian Bob Barr was polling 6% nationwide in mid-summer. As high as 10% in New Hampshire. And post-Palin he's now down to 1%.
Ever since Goldwater the eastern establishment Republicans have distrusted Western cowboy individualists in the GOP.
With Sarah Palin, the libertarian wing of the GOP has finally arrived. Of course, that's going to make some other Republicans nervous.
Get over it Conservatives, THE LIBERTARIANS HAVE ARRIVED!!
Since when is banning abortion or keeping the Bridge to Nowhere money a libertarian position?
ReplyDeleteActually, Eric, I'd be happy to see a genuine libertarian insurgency, but Sarah Palin ain't it. She's Jim Dobson's choice, not Bob Barr's. If Bob Barr has lost any polling boost, it's because the Dobsonites were playing coy.
Theocracy and libertarianism don't mix. I encourage you in your revolution, Eric, but trust me: Sarah Palin is not your leader.