- The risk John McCain took last Friday is comparable to
the 72-year-old ex-fighter pilot knocking back two shots and flying his
F-16 under the Golden Gate Bridge.
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- McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his
co-pilot was the biggest gamble in presidential history. As of now, it
is paying off, big-time.
- The sensational selection in Dayton, Ohio, stepped all
over the big story from Denver Barack Obama's powerful address to
85,000 cheering folks in Mile High Stadium, and 35 million nationally,
a speech that vaulted him from a 2-point deficit early in the week to an
8-point margin. Barack had never before reached 49 percent against McCain.
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- As the Democrats were being rudely stepped on, however,
Palin ignited an explosion of enthusiasm among conservatives, evangelicals,
traditional Catholics, gun owners and right to lifers not seen in decades.
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- By passing over his friends Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge,
and picking Palin, McCain has given himself a fighting chance of winning
the White House that, before Friday morning, seemed to be slipping away.
Indeed, the bristling reaction on the left testifies to Democratic fears
that the choice of Palin could indeed be a game-changer in 2008.
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- Liberals howl that Palin has no experience, no qualifications
to be president of the United States. But the lady has more executive experience
than McCain, Joe Biden and Obama put together.
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- None of them has ever started or run a business as Palin
did. None of them has run a giant state like Alaska, which is larger than
California and Texas put together. And though Alaska is not populous, Gov.
Palin has as many constituents as Nancy Pelosi or Biden.
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- She has no foreign policy experience, we are told. And
though Alaska's neighbors are Canada and Russia, the point is valid. But
from the day she takes office, Palin will get daily briefings and sit on
the National Security Council with the president and secretaries of state,
treasury and defense.
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- She will be up to speed in her first year.
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- And her experience as governor of Alaska, dealing with
the oil industry and pipeline agreements with Canada, certainly compares
favorably with that of Barack Obama, a community organizer who dealt in
the mommy issues of food stamps and rent subsidies.
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- Where Obama has poodled along with the Daley Machine,
Palin routed the Republican establishment, challenging and ousting a sitting
GOP governor before defeating a former Democratic governor to become the
first female and youngest governor in state history.
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- For his boldness in choosing Palin, McCain deserves enormous
credit. He has made an extraordinary gesture to conservatives and the party
base, offering his old antagonists a partner's share in his presidency.
And his decision is likely to be rewarded with a massive and enthusiastic
turnout for the McCain-Palin ticket. Rarely has this writer encountered
such an outburst of enthusiasm on the right.
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- In choosing Palin, McCain may also have changed the course
of history as much as Ike did with his choice of Richard Nixon and Ronald
Reagan did with his choice of George H.W. Bush. For should this ticket
win, Palin will eclipse every other Republican as heir apparent to the
presidency and will have her own power base among lifers, evangelicals,
gun folks and conservatives wholly independent of President McCain.
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- A traditional conservative on social issues, Palin has
become, overnight, the most priceless political asset the movement has.
Look for the neocons to move with all deliberate speed to take her into
their camp by pressing upon her advisers and staff, and steering her into
the AEI-Weekly Standard-War Party orbit.
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- Indeed, if McCain defeats Barack, 2012 could see women
on both national tickets, and given McCain's age and the possibility he
intends to serve a single term, women at the top of both Sarah vs.
Hillary.
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- The arrival of Palin on the national scene, with her
youth, charisma and vitality, probably also portends a changing of the
guard in Washington.
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- With Republicans having zero chance of capturing either
House, and but a slim chance of avoiding losses in both, a Vice President
Palin, with her reputation as a rebel and reformer, would surely inspire
similar revolts in the Republican caucuses.
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- As Thomas Jefferson said, from time to time, a little
rebellion in the political world is as necessary as storms in the physical.
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- The Palin nomination could backfire, but it is hard to
see how. She has passed her first test, her introduction to the nation,
with wit and grace. And the Obama-Biden ticket, having already alienated
millions of women with the disrespecting of Hillary, is unlikely to start
attacking another woman whose sole offense is that she had just been given
the chance to break the glass ceiling at the national level.
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- Her nomination, which will bring the Republican right
home, also frees up McCain to appeal to moderates and liberals, which has
long been his stock in trade.
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- With his selection of Sarah Palin, John McCain has not
only shaken up this election, he may have helped shape the future of the
United States and much for the better.
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- © 2008
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