We're looking at a full-blown meltdown. Let's kick things off with Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review:
"She Just Is Not Ready to Be Commander-in-Chief" [said] Pat Buchanan on MSNBC just now, about Sarah Palin. I'm liable to agree.
Lopez also posted this as a typical email she's gotten:
As much as I loathe Obama-Biden, I can't in good conscience vote for a McCain-Palin ticket. Palin has absolutely no experience in foreign affairs. Considering both McCain's advanced age and the state of the world today, it is essential that the veep be exceedingly qualified to assume the office of president. I simply don't have any confidence in Palin's ability to deal effectively with Iran, Russia, China, etc. I certainly will not cast a vote for Obama-Biden, but nor will I vote for McCain-Palin. Looks like I'll either sit this one out or vote for Bob Barr. Why, o, why, didn't McCain listen to Rove and just pick Romney?
cityduck's diary :: ::
From the National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru:
Inexperience. Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain’s decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain's age raised the stakes on this issue.
As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Conservatives are pointing out that it is tricky for the Obama campaign to raise the issue of her inexperience given his own, and note that the presidency matters more than the vice-presidency. But that gets things backward. To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins.
And it’s not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either. (On the other hand, as Kate O’Beirne just told me, we know that Palin will be ready for that 3 a.m. phone call: She’ll already be up with her baby.)
Tokenism. Can anyone say with a straight face that Palin would have gotten picked if she were a man?
Compatibility. It doesn’t seem as though McCain knows Palin well. Do we have much reason to think they would work well together?
Debates. Maybe, as Jonah said the other day, Biden will look like a bully going up against her—and maybe she’ll shine. But I can think of a lot of other picks who would have been lower-risk.
I am not even sure that the pick will have quite the galvanizing effect on conservatives that it seems to be having now as it sinks in. The concerns I’ve mentioned here—about her readiness and her credentials—are the kind of thing that many conservative voters take seriously.
From the National Review's Jonah Goldberg:
Downside: She may not be ready for primetime. The heartbeat-from-the-presidency issue is a real one.
From the National Review's Jonathon Adler:
I recognize that were McCain to select Palin as his Veep it disrupts the Obama Lacks Foreign Policy Experience" talking point, but I was never thought that argument was all that powerful.
From Town Hall's Ron Fournier:
If Obama is an empty suit, as McCain has suggested, is Palin suited for the Oval Office herself?
She is younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. Just 20 months ago, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the biggest annual worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race.
From MSNBC's Joe Scarborough:
It Sounds Like a Harriet Miers Decision. Let's Find a Woman, Whether She's Experienced or Not.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/29/125530/561/942/578766
