Reconsidering Palin – The Corner on National Review Online.

Ramesh Ponnuru

One smart blogger has corrected his vision, deciding from the results that he got it wrong the first time:

In my initial list of pros and cons on the Palin pick, I underestimated the pros and overestimated the cons. Among the pros, I neglected to mention the possibility that she would have a capacity to connect with ordinary people that few of her politico peers do.

As for the cons: I did not foresee the way the experience issue would play out. I thought that picking Palin would reduce the salience of the experience question: Any time that Republicans brought it up, Democrats would use Palin to make Obama look experienced. I did not imagine that the Democrats would instead raise the salience of the issue by going on offense against Palin’s inexperience, because it seemed to me such a foolish play. And I don’t think it’s worked out well for them. For one thing, Obama has diminished himself on a few occasions by getting into an Obama vs. Palin contest.

Finally, I did not foresee how vicious the reaction in some quarters of the left, and of the media, would be.

I thought her lack of experience in dealing with national issues, including foreign-policy issues, was a serious strike against her. I still do. I cannot say that I am confident that she would be “ready on day one” to be commander-in-chief. But I cannot say that about Obama, either, and I like my odds better with the McCain-Palin ticket than with the Obama-Biden one.”

Ramesh Ponnuru has joined a large and growing group of people, even progressive, pro-choice women who’ve found reason to be comfortable with Palin. And contrary to what the mainstream media (MSM) is putting out, some of those people are former Hillary supporters