Tag Archives: vice presidential candidate

Reconsidering Palin – The Corner on National Review Online

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

“The Most Macho Speech of the Evening” : The New Agenda

“The Most Macho Speech of the Evening” : The New Agenda.

“That’s what one of the CNN people called Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention tonight, and Amy Holmes, a conservative commenter for CNN said, She balanced toughness and femininity very well—something Hillary Clinton got a lot of flack for.

It’s clear from the above comments that gender is still a central issue in the campaign.

What struck me as notable tonight was my impression that she could be right here in my living room, talking to me (in fact, her accent reminds me of my Aunt Linda) and, as Anderson Cooper noted on CNN, talking to small town America was the thing that won George Bush the White House.

Average Americans will listen to her and feel like they know her, and in a way they do—she’s our neighbour, our sister, or the woman we chat with when we’re in line at the post office. We get Sarah Palin. She’s one of us. And she’s sharp, too. The speech had some funny lines. My favorite: That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.

It was a great introduction to Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate.”

One of AdvancingWomen’s favorite lines was “What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?  Answer: Lipstick.

Which brings to mind Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous saying:  ” A woman is like a tea bag. You don’t know how strong she is until she’s dropped in hot water.”

Another noteworthy comment was McCain’s observation, regarding Sen. Obama’s claim that he had more experience than Palin: “Sarah Palin has 24,000 employees in the state government” and was “responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply.” He added that he was entertained by the comparison of her experience to that of Mr. Obama and that “I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America.”

Sarah Shocker – Women Count Blog

Sarah Shocker – Women Count Blog

“Wow! McCain definitely knows how to shake things up. Picking Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate today makes it crystal clear – women are the most coveted demographic for both Obama and McCain. It is also clear that Senator Clinton’s candidacy continues to impact the race in unprecedented ways. In fact, many think McCain’s pick is a reaction to Obama not picking Clinton as his running mate. We just listened to Governor Palin’s speech and noticed that she didn’t mention Obama or Biden by name, but she did give props to Senator Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro. Like the rest of the country, we still need to get up to speed on everything about Governor Palin, but there is no doubt that she is pro-life, and really close to Big Oil interests. If McCain thinks we will fall in line simply because he picked a woman – we will give him our own surprise. We know that Senator Clinton’s supporters didn’t just vote for her because she was a woman – they voted for her because she was a qualified woman who was with them on the issues. Stay tuned – WomenCount will uncover the “substance over style” and we will continue to keep you updated as the “Sarah Shocker” plays out”

AdvancingWomen.com’s take on “Sarah Shocker”:

AdvancingWomen doesn’t think we should “fall in line”  as we examine Governor Sarah Palin’s credentials, just because she’s a woman.  We do think, however,  we should be extraordinarily respectful and mindful that, as women, we do share a common history with her, and whoever is elected, we will share a common future, so it would serve us well to look for common ground and ways to work together, whichever side of an issue we fall on. We should all remember that women legislators of both parties have done more for other women than men of either party.

We think Governor Palin’s nomination should give us all hope…. at a time when many of the “first wave” of women advocates, have given up the fight, or settled for achieving their own ambitions without reaching down to give a hand up to other women.  Or they become imbued with a sense of sadness and loss instead of a fighting spirit which inspires them to move on and take up the next challenge.

This morning Ellen Goodman wrote  a kind of sad, elegiac tribute  titled “Curtain call for Clinton’s drama”, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/29/curtain_call_for_clintons_drama/, mentioning the lost battles of Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton, noting “For the first time, the woman checked off the box of experience. And watched it reframed as “old politics.” And “However many speakers talked about the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, the ceiling is in place. While polls say that women now feel it’s more likely to have a woman president in the future, older women wonder, “In my lifetime?”  Goodman ended with Senator Clinton’s quote: “My mother was born before women could vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for president. That, for the moment”, wrote Goodman” is history enough.”

AdvancingWomen.com respectfully disagrees.  That is not history enough. We are thrilled to welcome Governor Sarah Palin into the race.  Of course she will be imperfect like every man who’s ever served, just like Jefferson and Lincoln and John Kennedy.  Of course she won’t agree with us on every issue.  As women trying to crack the glass ceiling, we should offer a big enough tent to allow people to have civil debate and try to reach common ground. We don’t think serious, thoughtful people will vote for Governor Sarah Palin just because she is a woman any more than some people would vote for Barack Obama just because he is a Democrat.  Hopefully they will study the candidates in depth and in context and make a judgment on the totality of the issues before casting their vote.
But, in the meantime, the valiant run  of Senator Clinton and the bold nomination of Governor Sarah Palin are just two more steps on a long , steep road that will eventually take a woman crashing through that highest and hardest glass ceiling and into the seat of power in the Oval Office.  AdvancingWomen looks forward to all of us working together to do everything possible to make that day come sooner rather than later, starting with developing that women’s farm team, with electing women dog catchers and sheriffs, city council women and school superintendents, mayors, governors, senators and ultimately….Madame President.