Thoughtful conservative commentator Ross Douthat has some advice for the Democrats that I wholeheartedly agree with:
Do not attack her. Stop referring to her as a just a small-town mayor and a neophyte governor who's unqualified to be President; in fact, stop referring to her at all. Attack John McCain, John McCain, and John McCain. Attack him all day, all night, and on weekends too. Behave as though Sarah Palin does not exist.
Quite right. In Palin, the Republicans have found themselves the equivalent of the matador's cape: a brightly coloured distraction that will be waved madly at the Democrats, in order to enrage them and invite them to charge at the fluttering thing rather than at the man.
I don't mean in any way to belittle Palin. She may well be a future GOP star. The effect of her speech on the Republicans last night was certainly similar to the effect of Obama's at the Dem convention of 2004 (though she said much less about her political vision and did a lot more attacking). But that's beside the point - or at least, the Democrats should make it beside the point. They should stick to Obama versus McCain, change versus more of the same. They should be cool, even kind about Palin: eg, she's a great talent who in some regards shares our desire for change - but she works for McCainBushTheRepublicans, and they are the enemy.
Palin, being a woman, a hardline conservative, youthful, potentially likeable, and a Washington outsider, complicates things in all sorts of ways for the Democrats. That's why she may be a problem for them in 2012 or 2016. But she won't be a problem for them now unless they make her one.
She's gonna be a problem for everyone if she gets in office.
Sarah Palin took a town with $0 debt in 1996 and left it $22 million in the hole in 2002, mostly from the hockey rink/sports complex she shoved down their throats which never became the money generator she promised it would. Another white elephant from another white elephant.
Even with the stable Clinton economy during most of her mayoral tenure and Jack Abramoff's crony she hired to lobby Washington to help her now indicted buddy Ted Stevens ring up $27 million in federal pork for tiny Wasilla (pop. 5000 when she entered office) she still managed to leave the town swimming in debt. Three of her pork projects even made McCain's own wasteful spending list.
The following organization is the offshoot of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control started in 1984, also known as the Grace Commission. Definitely not a Dem friendly group but even these guys apparently think Alaska is America's welfare queen state.
Citizens Against Government Waste
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage
Rank State Pork Population Pork/Capita
2000 1 Alaska $394,514,000 619,500 $636.83
2001 1 Alaska $480,297,000 626,932 $766.11
2002 1 Alaska $451,334,278 634,892 $710.88
2003 1 Alaska $393,346,750 643,786 $610.99
2004 1 Alaska $524,329,000 648,818 $808.13
2005 1 Alaska $645,502,000 655,435 $984.85
2006 1 Alaska $325,106,000 663,661 $489.87
2007 not listed
2008 1 Alaska $379,699,715 683,478 $555.54
As governor she is borrowing from Alaska's future while she wants to blow today's Alaskan windfall oil tax bonanza and the huge surpluses they've generated on bread and circuses tax giveaways.
Alaska gets 89% of it's operating budget from taxing oil coming out of the ground just like Arab kingdoms and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. They have no state income or sales tax up there. Instead of using that windfall to pay for all the profligate spending her Republican legislature keeps sending her she's issuing bonds to pay for it which Alaskans and US taxpayers will have to pay off in future years while she takes credit for tax "rebates" while she's governor.
Her fiscal policy is a disaster in the making which won't hit til she's left the governor's office. She'd be a disaster as Vice President especially to a President who despite his grevious wounds and type A personality is already past the age his father and grandfather died of sudden heart attacks.
She can put on all the lipstick she wants but her political record is for the dogs.
Posted by: markg8 | September 04, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Joe Biden has certainly been very complimentary about her since the speech.
Posted by: richard | September 05, 2008 at 06:50 PM