Daniel Henninger, WSJ:
he credit-market turmoil is serious, but no campaign has the information Treasury or the Fed are using to work the problem.
Rather than be dragged into the path of the financial storm, the McCain campaign especially needs to refocus on its postconvention momentum. It needs to worry about wasting the political capital Gov. Sarah Palin deposited in the Bank of McCain three weeks ago.
Once Mr. McCain picked Mrs. Palin as his running mate, he demoted “experience” and elevated a government “reform” message. It was the right thing to do. Presidential voters are ambivalent about Beltway-marinated senators like Mr. McCain and Joe Biden. John McCain’s edge is his famous reputation as a reform maverick. So far, though, he is not casting his reform message in large enough terms.
Washington is arguably at its lowest ebb in the public mind since before World War II. Join that fact to Sarah Palin’s personally gutsy and professionally strong reform credentials, and Mr. McCain has the chance to offer voters a reform presidency in historic terms.
Yes, the Obama campaign is trying to hang the Bush presidency around his neck. Mr. McCain knows — and should give — the answer to that: Voter disgust with Washington goes far beyond George W. Bush.
In the 2006 off-year election, voters threw out the Republican bums and turned over control of Congress to the Democrats. In an odd thank-you, the Democratic Congress earned the lowest approval ratings ever recorded in opinion polls.
[…]
Forget the Tina Fey SNL mockery and all the marginalia being written about Sarah Palin now. She did four real things in Alaska that make her fit for anyone interested in a reform presidency.
She took on: her party’s state chairman, her party’s state attorney general, GOP Gov. Frank Murkowski’s tainted gas pipeline project, and then she supported a GOP candidate who ran against Alaska’s “untouchable” GOP congressional earmarker, Don Young.
One way or another, each episode involved severing the sleazy ties that bind public officials to grasping commercial interests, something even the Democratic left purports to favor.
It isn’t just Washington and Juneau. You could open the nozzle on the same reform fire hose to wash the public-private slime out of the capital hallways of New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois and onward.
You say Sarah Palin doesn’t have enough “experience” to run Washington? Washington is barely fit to be run.
[…]
Unfocused “reform” rhetoric from Mr. McCain isn’t enough. The public has been there, heard that. Sen. McCain should talk about what he knows — fat Fannie and Freddie, farm-bill bloat, the ethanol subsidy fiasco, the federal procurement mess. Show people Gov. Palin’s 18 single-spaced pages of 2007 vetoes. Then identify Congress’s bipartisan supporters of the Legislative Line-Item Veto Act and ask the voters’ support. Appear with GOP congressman from Sarah’s new generation who want to help — Eric Cantor of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Kevin McCarthy of California. There are others.
Promise to spend the first two years on this historic political reform effort, and if a Democratic Congress laughs, promise to barnstorm in 2010 for a Congress willing to act, from any party.
One hears talk of John McCain’s temper. My guess is voters want someone to lose it with Washington, big time. Oh, and he should ask what’s the difference between a reformist pit bull and a six-term senator. It isn’t lipstick.
Henninger is spot on for the most part, it seems to me — but he misses making a key observation: part of the strategy Democrats have been employing, with their attacks on Palin’s “qualifications” and on her small town roots, is to turn her into a hickish hootchie momma playing a sad reindeer rag on the spoons — not simply to assuage their own elitist egos (though that part, along with their loathing of the snowbilly doublewides and their moose-infested backwood burb — one that nonetheless needs their protection, less its pristine beauty is destroyed by those who, you know, inexplicably live there), but to preemptively downplay the importance of the reforms for which she’s responsible.
Sure, li’l miss PTA fixed a few “Alaskan problems,” the subtext suggests. But Alaska is barely even part of the US, and in Washington, Palin won’t be going up against drunken Inuits lobbying for Sunday happy hours, but rather she’ll be among the “political class,” people with law degrees and Ivy League educations who’ve spent years being groomed to say nothing at all while pretending to address problems and issues.
And really, how can she even hope to compete?
— Which is why McCain must do more than simply point out Palin’s reform accomplishments. He must make the argument that reformers can reform on large scales or small scales, provided they are willing to use the tools of reform at their disposal.
Governor Palin did so — and the line-item veto is a fine example. Too, much more should be made about precisely who it was this “hockey mom” took on and defeated: entrenched party power players, just like those from other states — only with the stakes being energy projects carrying national implications, a substantial accomplishment of real reform to which most Governors cannot lay claim.
More should be made of Alaska’s importance to energy supply — with the suggestion that the population of Alaska is disproportionately small when set against to the state’s importance nationally.
Democrats — and even some blue blood “conservatives” — have worked tirelessly to diminish Palin’s record of effectiveness. McCain should seize upon this, not to highlight a class war, but rather to suggest that what’s really at play here is the fear the entrenched have about having an outsider suddenly availed of the kinds of power necessary to disrupt business as usual.
Hang Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac around the neck of the one. I denounce myself.
“Governor Palin did so  and the line-item veto is a fine example.”
Mav should work this in as one of the butget reform tools needed in Washington…
“,i>Too, much more should be made about precisely who it was this “hockey mom†took on and defeated: entrenched party power players, just like those from other states  only with the stakes being energy projects carrying national implications, a substantial accomplishment of real reform to which most Governors cannot lay claim.”
This is spot on. Mav needs to talk much more about her reform bona-fides. That way he can short circuit the argument that those same acts were simply serendipitous consequences of a reform minded population.
Baracky is still running ads about his changeyness, and his new style politics of hope. Makes me puke a little in the back of my mouth every time I see it. I really do not like him.
NPR has this new thing where they do an audio fisking of Governor Palin every morning. They play a sentence of one of her speeches and then they snark on it. Then another and another. They only do this when they really hate somebody, and I’ve never heard them do it every morning like they’ve been doing for her. They didn’t mention about how her emails were hacked, but Baracky’s passport was a really big damn deal I remember. I wonder how NPR’s endowment is looking these days. Don’t tell me. I like wondering that.
Mav calling O!s bluff.
Too, much more should be made about precisely who it was this “hockey mom†took on and defeated:
Exactly. That’s what impressed me when I watched the CNN documentary on her life. She was making something like $150,000 a year in a cush job as an Oil & Gas commissioner and she RESIGNS and blows the whistle on her state party chairman, then takes down the attorney general, and then takes on the governor with little support from within her own party. Anyone who’s worked in politics knows only somebody tough and principled can do what Palin did.
The McCain campaign needs to run adds showing the Alaskan thugs’ faces, and then follow that with the faces of the thugs who run Chicago, and then Congress, and ask if B.O. will take them on.
“…Appear with GOP congressman from Sarah’s new generation who want to help  Eric Cantor of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Kevin McCarthy of California. There are others….”
We could see the failure of the McCain campaign’s imagination during the recently concluded Convention when, instead of men like these, “…Eric Cantor of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Kevin McCarthy of California…” and to add, Jeff Flake, we got big doses of the likes of Mel Martinez, Lindsay Graham, Tom Ridge, Bill Frist, Mike Huckabee……….these douches can’t think to get out of their own way.
Small and shriveled, as if they had just come out of an ice bath.
Wait… what?
Bill Frist is tits on a nun I think.
oh. Yes. That deranged hamburger widow that left NPR all that gobs of money. She’s dead now so it’s no fun hating on her, but what a deranged bitch. Joan Kroc. Sad lonely deranged shut-in who left $200 million to those nice people on her radio. Ack. Embarrassing.
I remember back when Ray Kroc set a record for most lost wealth in one day. Before that, it was a guy who lived up the river from me. No up the creek jokes, please.
Nowadays, though, Bill Gates loses more money than that falling asleep in the men’s room.
Hugh Hewitt is taking only first-time women callers so that he can ask them what they think of Sarah. They all gush about how she’s just like them and how energized they are with her on the ticket.
Me, I’m energized, too, but the only think I have in common with Sarah is that we were born 100 days apart, so we graduated from high school the same year.
Outside of that, nada. I don’t hunt or fish. I shot a rifle once at some clay pigeons when I was twelve. I totally suck at sports. I’ve never had a shot at winning a beauty contest. I’m not married, and even if I were, I’d never land a studly stud like Todd Palin. I have no kids. I’m one of those overeducated Ivy-league types. I’m not competitive or driven. And I’d never be able to function as a politician.
So I’m not one of those who can Relate To Her.
But she has zero tolerance for government corruption, old-boy networks, playing footsie with powerful commercial entities, or reveling in the privileges, perquisites, and power that come with “public service.”
She busts these sumbitches and makes them pay. She doesn’t push her opponents aside so that she can have her turn at the trough.
If I had the chops to be a politician, that’s exactly the kind of politician I’d want to be.
And that’s why I’m voting for Sarah Palin.
Oh, and McCain, too.
That Sarah lives in you over active imagination, Dicentra. But do tell he I said “hello.”
Dan Collins on 9/18 @ 12:22 pm
Well, he’s getting better, but how is he going to reform Washington? He’s too heavy on regulatiing Wall Street, and way too vague on Washington.
Morrisey had the “oh-noes” this morning on even the mention of veto power (and Palin’s use of same — which is how she achieved results, and made lots of enemies on both sides of the aisle) — so exactly how does a Republican president exert any influence on what will probably remain a Dem Congress otherwise? By lecturing them? Or maybe spitballs?
And the bit about “warning the Administration” — give me a break. Where the hell was McCain in 2003, when Bush tried to reform Fannie/Freddie, even trying to knock the political appointees off the board?
And the bit about “warning the Administration† give me a break. Where the hell was McCain in 2003, when Bush tried to reform Fannie/Freddie, even trying to knock the political appointees off the board?
Why do trolls just intentionally re-write history? It is breathtaking when it is being done in real time.
Because it’s all they’ve got?
Italo Calvino owns all you fiction!
you, your, me, mine
Owns!
Why do trolls just intentionally re-write history? It is breathtaking when it is being done in real time.
NYT, 9/11/03: New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
THOR HAS AN AVERSION TO THE LETTER R. EVERYONE MOCK HIM FOR IT.
We will shut down this site when osama gets elected.
Dicentra: ” […] I’m not married, and even if I were, I’d never land a studly stud like Todd Palin.”
You misunderestimate yourself.
Looks like we’re back where we started again. Looks like Wall Street is relieved that the dems adjourned.
Is that the sound of the smart kids snapping up the grossly oversold?
“No, no, no”, sez Rev. Wright, “not God bless America, God Damn America, God Damn America…it’s right there in the bible!”
Ah, here’s why Sdferr. The SEC told George Soros to put his clothes back on.
I’d prefer someone told Mr. Soros to hurry on up and get in his cell and not to be bothering his cellmate Tiny with his socialist blather, cause Tiny don’t play that way. oh, and here’s the ‘lectraGlide, Mr. Soros. Smile pretty for Tiny now.
No, no, no, they didn’t fail, these fine corporate borrowers simply needed a few bridge-to-nowhere loans to help ’em keep up with their loan payments they fell behind on.
The fundamentals of the economy are strong. Lower taxes, higher spending, more deregulation, continued devaluing of the dollar, higher inflation, more nationalizing of publicly traded corporations and more ez loan terms for American consumers are on the way! Vote MickeyCain!
I like to refer to these types–the politicians, at least–as “people educated beyond their intelligence.”
What Osama running for besides his life.
You misunderestimate yourself.
You’ve never seen me. And you’ve never seen my track record with men. I attract mama’s boys who want me to run their lives. And closet cases. Lots of overlap with those two groups, lemme tell ya.
Mr Soros sure has a purty mouth!
dicentra
I listen to Hewitt every afternoon and it’s great to hear all the women who are deciding to really get involved this election. Republicans, Independents and the “I’ve never voted REpublican in my life, but my party is broken” Democrats. They recognize the real deal in Palin.
And it’s more than just gushing. They see a woman who has accomplished great things through talent and determination. She’s a role model and for every nasty thing thrown her way, the vicious attacks on her family designed by enraged Left fuckwits who cannot stand to have an apostate female succeed, it makes her stronger and makes more women want to vote for her.
Actually McCain should highlight a class war.
McCain and Palin should look the working people of the nation in the eye… look straight into the camera and tell them that they the American workers are the fundamentals of this economy… and they are strong.McCain palin should tell us they are going to leave money in our pockets, give us choices or where we spend it.
They should tell the American worker that our dependence on foreign sources of energy falls squarely on the Democrats who have blocked drilling, blocked nuclear, blocked clean coal, blocked oil sands, blocked it all and made us send our paychecks overseas.
They should tell the American worker Obama was #2 on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac donations list and that one of McCain/Palin’s duties will be to clean up the financial mess Washington and Wall Street is in.
McCain should apologize to the American people for not being able to do enough from his seat in the Senate to stop this mess and ask the American people put their power behind the McCain Palin ticket to chase the influence buyers out of the public purse.
A good old classic “I feel your pain, now lets get together and kick some ass” speech
Hey Jeff… you could write that speech better than anyone and I’d love to see you do it.
I’m with SteveG
McCain needs to seize on the Freddie/Fannie nexus of big money and Democrat politics. Not just Obama’s connections but also people the likes of Dodd and Kerry and all the rest.
This is red state v.s. blue state at it’s purest. The Democrats have lined up against the economic interests of the red States and middle America again and again. They routinely oppose drilling, mining, clean coal power plants, logging, etc. etc. Anything that actually involves producing things of value. Yet when it comes to the interests of the little blue banking States the money just flows and flows. And now the taxpayers are expected to prop up these heads I win tails you lose criminals so that they can continue to funnel scads of money to their bought and paid for politicians.
Count me as one who is fed up. some talk about another tea party. I’m waaay past that stage.
“They routinely oppose drilling, mining, clean coal power plants, logging, etc. etc. Anything that actually involves producing things of value. Yet when it comes to the interests of the little blue banking States the money just flows and flows.”
This is a rather good point, I think, and one which will play to working class as well as Middle America. Production vs. finance. Why, it even has a touch of the ol’ Marx to it!
You’ve gotta see this article by a deranged Canadian.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/05/f-vp-mallick.html
dicentra –
You have on open invitation to do a range outing with my family, should you like to mark “shooting” off your list of things to do. I used to go to Lee Kay, up off of 2100S at 5600W but lately it’s more Utah County. tmjutah AT hotmail etc…
Lately, shooting has been MOST relaxing. Lollleleventy11… Geeze. What days these are, eh?
You say Sarah Palin doesn’t have enough “experience†to run Washington? Washington is barely fit to be run.
Great quote, and sadly true.