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Conservative of the future
« on: September 04, 2008, 08:37:58 PM »

Conservative of the future

Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor | September 04, 2008

SARAH Palin is the most brilliant, bold, risky, dynamic-changing and consequential choice of vice-presidential running mate that John McCain could possibly have made. The reactions, pro and con, are incredible. Palin is now the most searched name on the internet. The Republicans raised more money online the day Palin was announced than ever before in this campaign.

The left-liberal media in the US are in a panic. And their loyal Australian imitators are regurgitating a stream of derivative anti-Americanism and cultural sneering entirely imitative of their big brothers at The New York Times.

The US political contest is thus poised at a delicate and fascinating moment. It's like the key seconds in a judo bout, to see who gets the better hold and executes the throw. The liberal establishment will try to blitzkrieg Palin into oblivion by charging that she is an extremist, a nut and corrupt. If the liberal elites fail in this, they risk mainstream America seeing their attacks on Palin as attacking the American heartland. Democrats should know from bitter experience that that kind of polarisation leads directly to Democratic defeat.

Thus we had The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, notoriously the silliest columnist in North America, who has never shown any evidence that a serious or worthwhile thought has ever passed through her addled head, sneering at Palin over the Christian names of her children. Imagine The New York Times' reaction if someone wrote a column sneering at the name Barack. But anti-Christian prejudice is licensed in the elite American media. The hypocrisy and cultural prejudice are obvious. Almost as a direct counterpoint to Dowd, another liberal columnist, the more serious Bob Herbert, wrote a cautionary piece advising fellow liberals to be very, very careful about the terms in which they attacked Palin. He could sense the danger.

Democratic politics involves a judgment of both policy and character. The voter answers two questions: do I agree with this candidate's policies, and do I believe this candidate has the character and experience for high office? Palin answers both these questions in ways that are deeply troubling for Democrats. Amazingly, she has the potential both to energise the Republican base, capture more women voters and appeal to independents.

It's wrong to see her choice as McCain going for a right-winger over a centrist such as his good friend Joe Lieberman. Although she is certainly a conservative, the left/right analysis doesn't capture Palin.

Her political story, and her personal story, are compelling. Politics first. In the mid-'90s Palin ran for the town council of Wasilla, where she lives, about an hour north of Anchorage, Alaska. She then ran for mayor, won and was re-elected comfortably. She ran the town -- population about 9000 -- well, cutting taxes and instituting a police force.

The corrupt Republican establishment which ran Alaska considered her for a casual vacancy in the Senate. She was overlooked and instead appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Council. This is a powerful body which oversees Alaska's energy policy. On this council she found her Republican colleagues were behaving corruptly. She protested their behaviour but got nowhere so resigned in disgust. The Republican she complained about was later booted off the commission, and paid a record fine.

Palin then ran for governor against the hitherto immensely powerful Republican incumbent. She beat him in a landslide in the Republican primary. She then beat a former Democratic governor in the general election. She has since then cut taxes, cut wasteful pork-barrel spending, got a natural gas pipeline started, overcome the influence of oil and gas companies on the state's energy policy and, two years into her term, has an approval rating over 80 per cent, the highest in the US.

This domestic political story makes Palin the most successful governor in the US. Again, the double standard and hypocrisy of liberal commentators who demean all this is obvious. Did they demean Bill Clinton because he was the governor of the very small state of Arkansas? Hillary Clinton talks of her lifetime of political achievement. Much of that involves not even being governor of a small state, such as Clinton or Sarah Palin, but being the wife of a governor of a small state.

Much of what excited McCain about Palin is that she achieved in Alaska what he wants to achieve nationally. She put integrity first in politics, is a political reformer, fought the Republican Party establishment, and came out on top. That's exactly how McCain wants his own script to read. The idea that with these political achievements she could be called inexperienced in comparison with Barack Obama is absurd.

Like Obama, she is obviously untutored and inexperienced in foreign policy. But she is not running for president, but vice-president. It is routine to balance a ticket with one having more foreign, and one more domestic, experience. Within a very short time as McCain's vice-president, Palin would be at ease in international affairs.

But it is the personal life of Palin that most liberal commentators can't bear. And they can't bear it because it threatens their world view. Palin is a happy conservative warrior who exudes vitality and a natural gratitude for all the wonders of life and all the wonders of America. She is a pro-life Christian. The liberal media wants politically active Christians to present like Elmer Gantry: dreadful, corrupt hypocrites. They should look like Jerry Falwell if they're men or Tammy Faye Bakker if they're women. They should not be so radiantly normal and happy as Palin.

Palin is 44. She has five children. She is married to a Joe Six-Pack kind of guy, a sportsman, oil rig worker and unionist, who mostly leaves the politics to his wife. Palin's oldest son is about to go to Iraq with the US military. McCain's sons have served in Iraq as well. The liberal critique that conservative policy-makers want other families to pay the price of their policies won't wash with McCain or Palin.

Similarly, Palin is anti-abortion, a far more mainstream position in the US than in Australia. During her pregnancy with her fifth child she was told he would suffer from Down syndrome. She went ahead with the pregnancy and the profound commitment to looking after her youngest son for the rest of her life.

This is a woman who lives according to what she says. Now it transpires that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. She will have the child. In the way of these things, this irrelevant controversy could yet destroy Palin's position, as could the slew of truly micro-scandals the media is obsessing about: her husband got a drink-driving ticket in the mid-'80s, for heaven's sake. If the media can frame the Palin story that way, it could destroy her.

If it doesn't, Palin's effect on the campaign could be explosive. She is a huntin' and fishin' kinda gal. She loves Alaska's great outdoors. Famously, she won one beauty pageant and came second in Miss Alaska 1984. This kind of thing drives the left-liberal mind absolutely nuts. With all the good, and the many challenges, in her life, Palin exudes the optimistic, sunny, distinctive personality of the great American west. She could play very well in the rocky mountain states and in the critical Midwest. Incidentally, she's the first woman on a Republican ticket. But that's the least of her accomplishments. If American conservatism has a future, it could look a lot worse than Palin.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24289419-7583,00.html
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke