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Sarah Palin’s market credentials

The Cato Institute blog makes this observation:

Some commentators are suggesting that the McCain campaign has panicked about Sarah Palin’s appeal, trying to cram her head with policy-wonkery and then hiding her in a closet when that didn’t work. Let Palin be Palin, they say — let her show her authentic self, the gun-totin’, family-raisin’, reformist governor that Alaskans love.
Good idea. Let’s start with the bailout. Surely a rugged individualist reformer from way outside the Beltway is champing at the bit to denounce this $700 billion bailout for Wall Street insiders cooked up by Washington insiders behind closed doors, without public hearings, with the unanimous support of the mainstream media. Let ‘er rip, Governor Palin. Tell the Wall Street bankers that when a small business makes bad decisions in Wasilla, it goes out of business, and the same rules should apply to large businesses in Manhattan. That’s the Sarah Palin conservatives say America would love.

I am not holding my breath. It would be interesting to see the reaction if she did give the bailout the finger, though. Judging by some of the media coverage of her and the credit crunch, large parts of the MSM press would lose their minds completely.

15 comments to Sarah Palin’s market credentials

  • Paul Marks

    When Senator Obama was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly his campaign insisted on a “no editing” agreement. And, contrary to the leftist propaganda, Bill O’Relly is a lot less dishonest in his editing of interviews than the mainstream media are.

    Yet the McCain/Palin campaign agreed to a two day (thus largely wasting a lot of the time in two days of the campagin) interview by ABC – and seemed astonished when ABC edited the interview to present Governor Palin in a bad light.

    Then the campaign agreed to another two day interview (again wasting a lot of valuable campaign time) with CBS (which is further to the left than the moderate Democrat ABC) and STILL DID NOT HAVE A NO EDITING AGREEMENT.

    Either the campaign staff want McCain/Palin to lose, or the campaign staff are morons.

    As the specific campaign staff responsible for these judgements are ex Bush people, either of the above is possible – or both.

    Time for John McCain and Sarah Palin to take their own campaign into their own hands.

    Nor is just presentation:

    Former Speaker N.G. begged John McCain to take the lead in opposing the 700 billion Dollars of extra Corporate Welfare (on top of the hundreds of billions of Dollars already wasted), and to lead the charge for the Republican alternative plan.

    But the “clever people”, the Wall Street welfare demanders and the Bush Administration types demanded that John McCain do no such thing.

    “After all [so these scum argued] the rightwing nutters do not have the votes to defeat the bailout anyway”.

    But we rightwing nutters did have the votes – and without any help from John McCain.

    He could have put himself at the head of the vast majority of ordinary voters – but he did not.

    The twin pillars of the McCain campain are the following:

    Controlling government spending – a pillar destroyed by supporting endless bailouts.

    And being independent of the establishment – a pillar destroyed by supporting such an establishment proposal as the 700 billion Dollar extra Corporate Welfare bailout.

    If John McCain loses the election he will have only himself to blame – for he ignored his instincts (and his voting record of more than 20 years) and went along with a lot of “clever” people instead.

  • Paul Marks

    When Senator Obama was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly his campaign insisted on a “no editing” agreement. And, contrary to the leftist propaganda, Bill O’Relly is a lot less dishonest in his editing of interviews than the mainstream media are.

    Yet the McCain/Palin campaign agreed to a two day (thus largely wasting a lot of the time in two days of the campagin) interview by ABC – and seemed astonished when ABC edited the interview to present Governor Palin in a bad light.

    Then the campaign agreed to another two day interview (again wasting a lot of valuable campaign time) with CBS (which is further to the left than the moderate Democrat ABC) and STILL DID NOT HAVE A NO EDITING AGREEMENT.

    Either the campaign staff want McCain/Palin to lose, or the campaign staff are morons.

    As the specific campaign staff responsible for these judgements are ex Bush people, either of the above is possible – or both.

    Time for John McCain and Sarah Palin to take their own campaign into their own hands.

    Nor is just presentation:

    Former Speaker N.G. begged John McCain to take the lead in opposing the 700 billion Dollars of extra Corporate Welfare (on top of the hundreds of billions of Dollars already wasted), and to lead the charge for the Republican alternative plan.

    But the “clever people”, the Wall Street welfare demanders and the Bush Administration types demanded that John McCain do no such thing.

    “After all [so these scum argued] the rightwing nutters do not have the votes to defeat the bailout anyway”.

    But we rightwing nutters did have the votes – and without any help from John McCain.

    He could have put himself at the head of the vast majority of ordinary voters – but he did not.

    The twin pillars of the McCain campain are the following:

    Controlling government spending – a pillar destroyed by supporting endless bailouts.

    And being independent of the establishment – a pillar destroyed by supporting such an establishment proposal as the 700 billion Dollar extra Corporate Welfare bailout.

    If John McCain loses the election he will have only himself to blame – for he ignored his instincts (and his voting record of more than 20 years) and went along with a lot of “clever” people instead.

  • M

    Paul Marks-you make many good points, but I am not so sure that McCain ‘ignored his instincts’. I think McCain simply reverted to the bad instincts he displayed with his campaign finance bill and that amnesty bill he proposed with Ted Kennedy.

  • M

    But the “clever people”, the Wall Street welfare demanders and the Bush Administration types demanded that John McCain do no such thing.

    You can add establishment ‘conservative’ think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, and establishment ‘conservative’ media outlets such as National Review, Wall Street Journal, and people like David Brooks to that list of ‘clever people’.

  • Paul Marks

    I watched John McCain talk about the bailout – it was perfectly clear that every instinct was screaming at him to oppose it (as he has so many subsidies and other such over the years).

    But it was just as clear the “good soldier” line was hitting him – your duty is to obey the Commander in Chief, the entire economy is at stake, millions will lose their jobs, all this suffering can be avoided if you will just go along with the plan.

    But the Commander in Chief is a moron and the plan will not avert any of the suffering – it will just make it worse.

    I agree that the most (although not all) of the W.S.J. people have been vile.

    And there have been totally mad things – such as Steve Forbes makeing lots of good points against the crazy plan and then saying everyone should vote for it anyway.

    But some of the people who were against the plan were no good either.

    For example, a lot of the Ludwig Von Mises people were saying there would be no real suffering if the plan was rejected.

    That is obvious bullshit – but the point is the suffering will not be prevented by the plan.

    As I say above – it will only be made worse than it otherwise would be.

    Such is the way of interventionism.

  • kentuckyliz

    The People won the argument.

    Now let’s put the “deliberative” back into “deliberative democracy.”

  • Daveon

    Yet the McCain/Palin campaign agreed to a two day (thus largely wasting a lot of the time in two days of the campagin) interview by ABC – and seemed astonished when ABC edited the interview to present Governor Palin in a bad light.

    Do you have any data from anywhere that stuff that showed her in a good light was left on the cutting room floor?

    So far I’m not seeing anything from ANYWHERE suggesting that she’s handling this well. Watching the Fox News pundits holding their noses while they try and find nice things to say is amusing.

    The reality is, if McCain had picked somebody else, Romeny, for example, he might have alienated the base but he’d be level if not ahead in the polls against Obama right now.

    It was as cynical a roll of the dice as Nancy Pelosi’s play yesterday. The difference is, hers will probably pay off and McCain, baring something really really cool, probably won’t.

    We have friends coming round for beer and pizza on Thursday night. It should be an interesting show.

  • Sunfish

    The reality is, if McCain had picked somebody else, Romeny, for example, he might have alienated the base but he’d be level if not ahead in the polls against Obama right now.

    If he had picked Goodhair, he’d get clobbered in the only poll that mattered. Romney would not get a single vote from people who vote on gun issues.

    Before you dismiss that, remember 1992 and 1994. George HW Bush approved the 1989 import ban on the advice of Lee Atwater. When Bush objected, saying that it would annoy gun voters, Atwater gave the famous response “Fuck the gun people. Where else are they gonna go?”

    The answer to his rhetorical question turned out to be a mix of “Perot” and “an early bedtime on Election Day.”

    And then there’s the 1994 Congressional turnover, which was largely blamed on backlash for the Brady Act and the 1994 AWB. McCain does not need a VP candidate who signed a state-level AWB, unless he’s actually trying to throw the election.

    You don’t win elections by chasing away your own voters.

  • Daveon

    You don’t win elections by chasing away your own voters.

    Then McCain might be toast then :/

  • Midwesterner

    Sunfish,

    Remember that Daveon considers the Annenberg funded Fact Check.Org to be a definitive source of unbiased, credible analysis. That is the same Annenberg that funded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge that Obama chaired for 5 years and ~$100,000,000

    BTW, I somehow missed all of the MSM reporting on what exactly Obama has to show for those $100 millions. That’s $20 million a year. You’d think Obama would be bragging about how he’ll do the same with taxpayer’s money. I guess I missed those news reports when I got caught up in that huge scandal over whether Palin did or didn’t ask the local librarian to explain the review process for a book a parent apparently deemed unsuitable for children.

    After all, – Obama staunchly defends free speechfor everybody.

  • Ken

    There is one reason and one reason ONLY that I am voting for McCain this November. That reason is Sarah Palin.

    If McCain had chosen Pawlenty, Romney or another dull Republican-In-Name-Only, I would’ve stayed home on election night.

    I bet there are millions of conservatives/libertarians like me out there.

  • Sunfish

    Mid,
    I lost interest in Palin scandals when the MSM decided to make an issue out of Palin firing an at-will department head who either couldn’t or wouldn’t maintain discipline in an armed, uniformed paramilitary organization. The whole issue jumped the shark for me before Palin was accused of banning books that hadn’t yet been published.

    To be honest, I also lost interest in Obama scandals. After all, if the UofC had hired his wife for $300 large a year right after he found them some nice earmarks, and the press didn’t make any noise about it (because a DUI arrest a few decades ago of a guy who is NOT running for office is a more important issue) then obviously it must be legit.

  • Paul Marks

    Ken – lucky John McCain did not listen to people like me (my thoughts were “Minnesota could be won over – Pawlenty loyal and a safe pair of hands”).

    Daveon – who denied that ABC left the favouable stuff on the cutting room floor (as for “data” – how about watching the full exchanges).

    I still do not think McCain-Palin will win the election (especially as the bailout has gone through) – but I am glad that her good account in the debate made you and your friends choke on your beer and pizza.

  • Paul Marks

    Ken – lucky John McCain did not listen to people like me (my thoughts were “Minnesota could be won over – Pawlenty loyal and a safe pair of hands”).

    Daveon – who denied that ABC left the favouable stuff on the cutting room floor (as for “data” – how about watching the full exchanges).

    I still do not think McCain-Palin will win the election (especially as the bailout has gone through) – but I am glad that her good account in the debate made you and your friends choke on your beer and pizza.

  • Paul Marks

    Ken – good thing John McCain did not take the advice of people like me then (my thinking was “Minnesota could take it with Pawlenty – and he is loyal and a safe pair of hands”).

    Daveon.

    On the ABC interview – why not watch more of the interview (some examples were given on Fox). Or just read Charles Krauthammer’s (NOT a man I like) “Charles Gibson’s blunder”.

    Nice that Governor Palin surprised and upset you and your friends during the debate.

    I still do not think that McCain-Palin will win the election (especially as the bailout has passed), but it would be nice to think of your pain if they did win.