CAMPAIGN OUTSIDER False notes for the Grand Old Party
By Muhammad Cohen
HONG KONG - As much as Democrats fear losing yet another eminently winnable
presidential election, Republicans are the ones running scared. Choosing Sarah
Palin for vice president underlines the John McCain campaign's conviction that
it can't win the election by conventional means, even though their man is
virtually even in the polls.
With Palin and convention keynote speaker Rudy Giuliani, party faithful may
contend they're showcasing the breadth of Republican values. Less charitable
observers would say the Republicans are
flailing desperately in all directions. The lone unifying principle is
stone-cold cynicism.
Though Hurricane Gustav may pre-empt him, former New York mayor Giuliani evokes
September 11, 2001, which Republicans feel holds the same symbolic magic as
Ronald Reagan or "our troops". That Republicans claim the worst attack in 60
years against Americans on American soil as a badge of honor is a stain on
themselves as well as their Democratic Party opponents. Only the Democrats can
explain why they let Republicans take credit rather than responsibility for
this tragedy.
Diversity diversion
Giuliani is also supposed to showcase the diversity of the Republican Party. He
represents the moderate, centrist wing of the Republican Party that George W
Bush's father once embodied. However, today's Republican Party rejects those
values in favor of far-right orthodoxy. Even McCain, to be nominated for
president this week in Saint Paul, has had to reverse several positions to
mollify the party base. Giuliani supports abortion rights, in an era where
opposition to abortion is a litmus test for Republican national candidates.
Late last month, the McCain campaign floated the balloon of a pro-choice vice
presidential nominee (ex-Democratic/now independent senator Joe Lieberman?
ex-homeland security secretary Tom Ridge?) and it was resoundingly punctured.
Like the pro-choice head fake, displays of Republican diversity are false
advertising.
The keynote speech spot usually goes to a fresh face the party wants to promote
for bigger and better things through national exposure. It worked for
Democratic keynoters Bill Clinton in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2004. This year,
the Democrats tapped former Virginia governor Mark Warner, now running for a
Republican-held senate seat.
Giuliani needs no introduction to the national scene. He became "America's
Mayor" after 9/11, and inexplicably, frontrunner for the Republican nomination
a year ago before plummeting ahead of losing his all-in bet on Florida.
Selecting him as a keynoter suggests the Republicans don't have new talent to
showcase. Or that their fresh faces want nothing to do with the Republican's
current president or candidate.
Or, perhaps, Republicans still see big things in Giuliani's future. Perhaps
party leaders think that he's the guy to take a shot at Hillary Clinton. The
two famous names were on a collision course for the 2000 New York senate race
before prostate cancer and messy marital moments derailed Giuliani's candidacy.
These days Clinton is very much on Republican minds, with many of her 18
million primary voters, female and blue-collar workers in particular, slow to
warm to Obama.
'The anti-Condi'
Let's see ... Republican,
fresh face, woman, blue collar ... Google those,
and somewhere in the results, you'll get Sarah
Palin, the 44-year-old first-term governor of
Alaska. In February, I asked a
rank-and-file Alaska Democrat about
Palin as a possible vice presidential candidate. My source called Palin "the
anti-Condi" (as in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice).
"She's very dynamic and is earning the respect even of those like myself who
didn't vote for her," this Democrat said. "She's something of a political force
of nature. The Republican establishment underrated her; she definitely isn't
one of the old boys here. I personally can vouch that she's changed the tenor
of state government through her appointments ...
"I can't see what her appeal would be on the national stage, though. The facts
of her background, once exposed in the national media, could work against her,
or they could work for her. She isn't a Harvard-trained lawyer. She was a
beauty queen, with a degree in communications who became mayor of Wasilla
[population 9,000], a new strip town 20 miles [32 kilometers] north of
Anchorage. (I'm stating this baldly so that you see how it looks in print!) Her
husband is an oil worker. Here, her breathless, on-the-go, we're-all-Alaskans
style works."
After the choice announced, this same Democrat wrote: "So, the anti-Condi might
be a heartbeat away from leading the world. This is an amazingly silly choice,
although, I have to say, it may work. The woman is smart (although not
particularly knowledgeable about anything except Alaska oil issues) and very,
very, very good on camera. She's fundamentalist right wing (a la [former
Arkansas governor Mike] Huckabee). She has great political skills but she's not
quite ready for prime time ... She's totally an Alaska product - born here,
married here and a cheerleader for the place. I don't think she's done a bad
job as governor, even though I didn't vote for her, but words like 'local',
'parochial', 'limited' and 'uninformed' come to mind ... What you see is what
you get, I think. Choosing her as a running mate is like choosing a student
body president, but it may work."
Common sense
"Sarah Palin is probably the closest candidate to the common man who has ever
been on a national ticket. She 'gets it', from the cost of gasoline to the
challenges of raising kids," Alaska Republican Convention delegate and
Institute of the North senior fellow Mead Treadwell countered. "We're pretty
proud in Alaska right now."
He praised Palin's work on energy issues - "pro-production all way" - including
tackling ExxonMobil for its failure to develop the 106,200 acre (430 square
kilometer) Point Thomson concession. "It is not an environment versus
development argument, but a 'get on the stick and perform' argument that may
mean Exxon loses a lease and an oil field because, after more than 20 false
starts, the state is fed up," Treadwell, who chairs the US Arctic Research
Commission, explained. "She has used the same tough stuff to help get our
natural gas to Americans, who need the energy."
Treadwell added, "I have learned never to underestimate this woman."
Palin ticks several boxes that could move voters. She has female gender, blue
collar and union links, a son heading for Iraq next week among her five
children including a Downs syndrome newborn, plus a record of fighting
corruption and saving taxpayers' money. She's clearly not a Washington insider,
though running against Washington will be tricky for McCain, a Capitol Hill
player for nearly three decades. Palin is also bound to improve on her
extraordinarily flat and colorless performance at Saturday's introduction.
Electric, shocking
She's reportedly electrified evangelicals, social conservatives, and gun owners
that were worried about McCain, but she'll likely shock moderates as they learn
more about her. For voters in the middle, Palin is a bait and switch, a wolf in
sheep's clothing. She's a woman who thinks government, not a woman herself,
should make pregnancy decisions, even in cases of rape or incest. (Her
pregnant, unwed 17-year-old daughter was educated in a Palin-endorsed
abstinence-based health curriculum.)She's an outdoorswoman who opposes
protecting the environment. She's a fighter against corruption as McCain
fancies himself, and just like McCain, she's got an ethics issue rattling in
her closet, an ongoing investigation into her ex-brother-in-law's firing from a
state job.
Most of all, she's got no foreign policy experience that might reassure voters
with a 72-year-old heading the ticket. "It's not only cynical, it's
irresponsible," the Alaska Democrat said. "I woke this morning actually
wondering if she might withdraw as soon as she understands what this is going
to mean in terms of her family and her role as governor. Believe me, she is
capable of doing that."
Whether Palin stays or goes, her selection underscores key points about McCain
and his party. The surprise choice burnishes McCain's credentials as a
maverick, a man who follows his own conscience and his own gut. However,
choosing Palin based on a single meeting highlights the worst of that side of
McCain, his belief that he knows best, even when he's shooting from the hip,
and that he doesn't have to follow the rules that apply to others. It's the
same kind of arrogance that led to the Iraq invasion, putting belief ahead of
evidence.
Going with your gut
Count on McCain to dismiss questions about Palin's readiness by saying, "I put
country first, my friend, so I wouldn't pick a vice president who wasn't
ready," echoing the Bush line on rebuttal of torture allegations: We don't
torture, so anything we do isn't torture. The truth is that from one meeting,
McCain couldn't possibly know how ready Palin is for anything.
The pick comes from the playbook of the campaign that nearly imploded with
hubris last year, then failed to capitalize on McCain's head start after
essentially clinching the nomination in February. For six months, the campaign
and candidate were erratic and unfocused, seemingly trying to look ragged. It
was only last month that the McCain camp pulled itself and its message
together. The Palin nomination could be a step back to letting McCain be
McCain. Or it could be the campaign giving the senator a little rope on his
short leash while it manages the big picture and the message. Saturday's
announcement put an out-of-the-box pick in a stylish package.
Call McCain's choice of Palin cynical, but recognize that Republicans' cynicism
is as genuine as McCain's arrogance. The party faithful truly believe that the
best interests of the country begin and end with their side winning. The 2000
election debacle decisively proved the Democrats don't think that way. The
Republicans' belief in their own cause and a willingness to act boldly on
behalf of themselves and the nation could prove far more decisive than who
occupies the number two spot on the ticket.
Regardless of her merits, choosing Palin is a reminder that the Republicans
will do, say and try anything to win and how much that separates them from the
Democrats. That should scare Democrats more than Sarah Palin's finger on the
nuclear trigger.
Former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen told America’s story to the
world as a US diplomat and is author of Hong Kong On Air (www.hongkongonair.com),
a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal,
high finance and cheap lingerie.
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rank-and-file Alaska Democrat about
Palin as a possible vice presidential candidate. My source called Palin "the
anti-Condi" (as in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice).
