What the right-wingers at the National Review are saying about the Palin pick.
Senaor Obama's writing, thinking, and speech-making are remarkable. He has the personal charisma of a natural leader. Bill Kristol on Fox admitted immediately afterwards that Obama's convention speech was "impressive" while Pat Buchanan was gushing over it on MSNBC. And Buchanan used to be a speechwriter.
Good for Buchanan for allowing his honesty to trump his ideology. Most Republicans are in denial about Obama's gifts. This is not surprising, considering their willingness to put novices and mediocrities in high places from the Vice Presidency and Supreme Court (Harriet Miers, Clarence Thomas, Dan Quayle, Palin) to FEMA (Brownie, Chertoff) but it's disturbing. No wonder they favor dynasties like the Bush family. Talent terrifies them.
National Review contributor Kathryn Jean Lopez sees Palin’s significance entirely in her decision not to abort a baby diagnosed with Down syndrome. "In contrast to Barack Obama, who would let the survivors of botched abortion attempts be killed," Lopez writes, repeating an ugly smear that Obama has denied, "the Palins could serve as a great clarifier for voters this fall — and an education." Well, having the child was her decision. And Down syndrome people seem to be both unusually sweet and capable of managing important aspects of daily life. But Palin wants the government to decide for other women and other, more severe medical conditions too. She does not believe in abortion under any circumstances. Besides, this is no qualification for High Office.
Another National Review contributor, Tom Gross, finds Palin a creditable candidate because, he says, she will stick up for Israel. "Certainly," Gross writes, "there is every sign that she will be better for at least one of America’s closest friends and allies, Israel, than Joe Biden." He concludes on the same lines: "The U.S. and Israel can have every confidence that, like McCain, she is a doer who means what she says — not someone like Joe Biden."
Where does this come from? How could the governor of Alaska ever have demonstrated any serious interest in Israel? Is it because she's an evangelical, and they believe that Christ will return to the Holy Land any minute now?
In "The Corner," a National Review site, editor Rick Brookhiser is more dubious about the Palin pick:
"We have shown the same color-by-numbers mindset that liberals did when they rallied to Obama. Liberals love Obama because he is a Numinous Negro. Conservatives love Palin because she has a Downs baby and an M-16."
Numinous Negro??!! Brookhiser either fails to see Obama's gifts or is in denial about them.
National Review commentator Shannen (sic) Coffin writes also has doubts.Although he lavishes excessive praise upon Palin, he interprets her selection as suggesting that McCain thinks he doesn’t really need a Vice-President. Above all, Coffin expresses a proper concern for "governance" : "After all, her career in the ‘city council’ and as mayor of a town few outside of Alaska have ever heard of doesn't exactly prepare her to preside over National Security Council meetings in the President's absence, to serve as a close adviser to the President on counterterrorism issues, or to have the nuke ‘football’ at her side 24/7."
The selection of Sarah Palin as their Vice-Presidential nominee is further evidence of Republican opportunism, ruthlessness, and lack of genuine patriotism. As a campaign strategy, it smacks of both cynicism and desperation.
Republicans would rather win and let the country go to hell than lose and give up their upper-income tax breaks. They regard Israel as a defenseless appendage of this country. They oppose the regulation of industry from which they get their stock dividends even when evidence of international pollution is glaringly apparent.
This Republican party has nothing in common with the historical party of Lincoln, U.S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, and Nelson Rockefeller. It has become the party of war-mongering neocons, greedy CEOs, and religious wingnuts. Such an unattractive bunch--if only they'd all go live in Alaska, and leave the rest of us alone.