The Key To Palin May Be Self-Imposed Ignorance

Republicans are counting on Obama's statement regarding "sharing the wealth" as something that will turn off voters. Predictably, it's having the opposite effect. So while a clueless rubber stamp like Ohio Bush puppet George Voinovich whines that Obama is a "socialist," even a Republican-biased polling outfit like Rasmussen is finding Obama continuing to increase his lead.

And newspaper endorsements continue to flood in for Obama. Two more fairly conservative big city newspapers, the Chicago Tribune, which never endorsed a Democrat before, and the L.A. Times both followed the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle into Obama's corner today. The Times editors wrote that they did it "without hesitation," even though, economically, they are extremely right-wing.

Our nation has never before had a candidate like Obama, a man born in the 1960s, of black African and white heritage, raised and educated abroad as well as in the United States, and bringing with him a personal narrative that encompasses much of the American story but that, until now, has been reflected in little of its elected leadership. The excitement of Obama's early campaign was amplified by that newness. But as the presidential race draws to its conclusion, it is Obama's character and temperament that come to the fore. It is his steadiness. His maturity.

These are qualities American leadership has sorely lacked for close to a decade. The U.S. Constitution, more than two centuries old, now offers the world one of its more mature and certainly most stable governments, but our political culture is still struggling to shake off a brash and unseemly adolescence. In George W. Bush, the executive branch turned its back on an adult role in the nation and the world and retreated into self-absorbed unilateralism.

...On paper, McCain presents the type of economic program The Times has repeatedly backed: One that would ease the tax burden on business and other high earners most likely to invest in the economy and hire new workers. But he has been disturbingly unfocused in his response to the current financial situation, rushing to "suspend" his campaign and take action (although just what action never became clear). Having little to contribute, he instead chose to exploit the crisis.

We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama's critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.

Even right-wing talk show hosts are abandoning McCain's sinking campaign. Most are just wishing it would all be over so they can stop talking about McCain, who they hate anyway, and get about trying to delegitimize Obama's presidency while pumping Sarah Palin for 2012. But Philly's most listened to conservative talker, Michael Smerconish (WPHT) endorsed Obama today-- and he largely based his endorsement on McCain's weakness-- and Obama's strength-- on terrorism and foreign policy.

"I've decided. My conclusion comes after reading the candidates' memoirs and campaign platforms, attending both party conventions, interviewing both men multiple times, and watching all primary and general election debates.
 
"John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president.

"Terrorism. The candidates disagree as to where to prosecute the war against Islamic fundamentalists. Barack Obama is correct in saying the front line in that battle is not Iraq, it's the Afghan-Pakistan border. Osama bin Laden crossed that border from Tora Bora in December 2001, and we stopped pursuit. The Bush administration outsourced the hunt for bin Laden and instead invaded Iraq.

"No one in Iraq caused the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Our invasion was based on a false predicate so we have no business being there, regardless of whether the surge is working. Our focus must be the tribal-ruled FATA region in Pakistan. Only recently has our military engaged al-Qaeda there in operations that mirror those Obama was ridiculed for recommending in August 2007.

The Wall Street Journal is unlikely to find a way to gracefully bow out of endorsing McCain. They'll have to do it. But in the blatant Republican Party propaganda sheet, Peggy Noonan savaged the embarrassing Palin today. Delusional as ever, Noonan starts off by yammering incoherently about how McCain-- at least in the elite circle she travels in, if not in the real world-- won the debate on Wednesday. Every poll except one at RNC Headquarters proves her wrong. Then she heads off into Palin territory:

Was her choice a success or a disaster? And if one holds negative views, should one say so? For conservatives in general, but certainly for writers, the answer is a variation on Edmund Burke: You owe your readers not your industry only but your judgment, and you betray instead of serve them if you sacrifice it to what may or may not be their opinion.

...[W]e have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? For seven weeks I've listened to her, trying to understand if she is Bushian or Reaganite-- a spender, to speak briefly, whose political decisions seem untethered to a political philosophy, and whose foreign policy is shaped by a certain emotionalism, or a conservative whose principles are rooted in philosophy, and whose foreign policy leans more toward what might be called romantic realism, and that is speak truth, know America, be America, move diplomatically, respect public opinion, and move within an awareness and appreciation of reality.

...In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.

I gather this week from conservative publications that those whose thoughts lead them to criticism in this area are to be shunned, and accused of the lowest motives. In one now-famous case, Christopher Buckley was shooed from the great magazine his father invented. In all this, the conservative intelligentsia are doing what they have done for five years. They bitterly attacked those who came to stand against the Bush administration. This was destructive. If they had stood for conservative principle and the full expression of views, instead of attempting to silence those who opposed mere party, their movement, and the party, would be in a better, and healthier, position.

At any rate, come and get me, copper.

Let's hope they rip each other apart. It won't matter to Palin. She claims she doesn't read any of them. She doesn't want much news seeping into her narrow little mind; it just gets her depressed.