California Conservative

Many in the Right Blogosphere have brought up the inexperience subject. To be fair, they’ve done so in a thoughtful manner. Two such people are Kevin at Pundit Review and Allahpundit at HotAir.

Here are a couple of concerns Kevin raises:

McCain turns 72 years old today. When thinking about a VP, I believe voters look at them and think, “can I imagine this person as president”. For all his flaws, Joe Biden passes that test. Will Sarah Palin? I don’t know?

Can she hold her own against a hostile press corps? How about against Joe Biden for that matter? The only honest answer is that nobody knows. I saw her about a month ago on Larry Kudlow’s TV show and I thought she did ok, not great, just ok. If that was my impression watching her in friendly territory, how will she do when really pressed?

With all due respect to Kevin, Joe Biden only passes the test stylistically. That isn’t nearly good enough for me. It’s why I ignored statements like this or that candidate “looks presidential.” When Sen. Obama took his overseas trip, especially after his meetings with President Sarkozy and PM Brown and in his ‘Citizen of the World’ speech in Berlin, the press practically wet their pants in talking about how presidential he looked.

Back then, I told a friend that it only took an expensive suit, a fresh haircut and a manicure to look presidential. I said that it’s another thing to be presidential.

People noticed the difference when Russia invaded Georgia. That’s when people saw Sen. McCain looking and acting presidential.

Kevin cited Gov. Palin’s interview with Larry Kudlow, saying that she looked ok, not great. I didn’t see the interview so I’ll take Kevin’s word on that. The Sarah Palin that addressed the frienzied crowd in Dayton looked absolutely poised. Yes, she was introduced to a friendly crowd but she was also making history. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a ton of butterflies loose in the pit of her stomach. She nailed that speech.

Allahpundit raises other serious concerns:

Whatever you think of Barry O, he’s got intelligence to spare to handle the job; a voter worried that Obama doesn’t know what he’s in for can console himself with the fact that he’ll be a quick study. That may be true of Palin too but she doesn’t have much time to show it, which is why every last mistake on the trail will be magnified to “prove” that she’s a hick who’s out of her depth.

I don’t buy that argument in this sense. If she makes a tiny error, Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, the Agenda Media and the Nutroots will cite this as proof that she isn’t fit to be vice president. Big deal. Conservative naysayers like David Frum and Ramesh Punnuru likely will too, mostly to make the case that they were right.

Now let’s get to the heart of the matter. I’ll cede the point that Sarah Palin’s Rolodez isn’t filled with the names of every world leader. Neither is Sen. Obama’s, which brings me to this point: There’s a tradeoff this election.

Do we want an inexperienced man as commander-in-chief or an inexperienced woman as a heartbeat away from being commander-in-chief?

Another legitimate question is whether Sen. McCain could’ve picked someone else that would’ve had more experience. The answer is yes. He could’ve picked Joe Lieberman but that would’ve caused trouble with the GOP base. It also would’ve said that McCain was bringing in another traditional inside-the-Beltway thinker. With this being a change election, that pick would’ve been a disaster.

Now let me make the case for Sarah Palin.

It’s true that Sarah Palin isn’t the polished old pro on national security matters. I’ll defy anyone to prove that she isn’t a quick learner, though. Her son leaves for Iraq in 10 days. Anyone think that she won’t be paying attention to everything that’s happening there? I’m betting that she’ll become real familiar real quick on foreign policy matters.

Which leads to the most important point. She isn’t being brought in to be the foreign policy guru. She’s being brought in to (a) drive the reform message, (b) drive the drilling message, and (c) drive the mesage home that wasteful spending is history in a McCain administration.

Does anyone, in either party, have her reform credentials? The answer is an emphatic no. Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney are both fine men capable of stepping right into the commander-in-chief role. That isn’t what voters are looking for this election. They’re looking for someone who won’t just end business-as-usual Washington.

With Congress’s approval rating half of Nixon’s final approval rating, they want someone that’ll take a torch to Capitol Hill and their K Street supporters. That’s precisely what they see in Sarah Palin and only Sarah Palin. That’s what will drive this election.

Before her pick, I’ve told friends that Obama’s stumbles told me he wasn’t ready for primetime. That’s before he picked a nontalent like Joe Biden. By mid-August, I’d told friends that this was McCain’s to lose. It’s obvious that the Obama campaign’s momentum ended with his fundraising speech in San Fransisco.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign started gaining momentum after he clinched the nomination. It started off slow. Then he started closing the gap with Sen. Obama. When Sen. McCain picked Sarah Palin, that momentum reached maximum velocity. Already the Obama post-convention bounce has been eliminated. Don’t be surprised if McCain-Palin leads in the polls before this week’s end.

Finally, I’ll point to something that Richard Nixon once said about the role of a running mate. He said that the best thing a running mate can do for the top of the ticket is to get the team elected. The thinking is inarguable. If they aren’t elected, all other considerations are meaningless.

That’s why the inexperience/Commander-in-Chief argument is a flimsy argument. It’s an argument made by thoughtful people with the best of intentions but it’s still a flimsy argument.

Technorati Tags: Experience, Change Election, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Status Quo, Commander-in-Chief, Reform, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Momentum, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 2:50 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Blogging, Corruption, Election 2008, Energy, McCain, Military, Obama, Palin, Special Interests, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.