Conservatives Turn On McCain-Palin

Too little too late though.  Are we to believe that conservative writers have finally seen the light?  Doubtful.

Ney, they are merely practicing their Machiavellian faith…Do and say whatever it takes to make the most amount of money.  Screw the truth.  Screw journalistic ethics. And when its convenient and easy, come over to the other side and help throw stones.

Conservatives Turn On McCain-Palin

The Huffington Post   |   September 16, 2008 08:27 AM

David Brooks writes in the New York Times that Sarah Palin is unqualified:

In the current Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and rooted people like Palin.

I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.

And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence.

Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

Ross Douthat agrees at the Atlantic:

Now that we’ve seen the entirety of the Palin-Gibson tete-a-tete, I concur with Rich Lowry and Rod Dreher. The most that can be said in her defense is that she kept her cool and avoided any brutal gaffes; other than that, she seemed about an inch deep on every issue outside her comfort zone. Yes, the questions were tougher than the ones that a Tim Kaine or Tim Pawlenty probably would have been handed, but they were all questions that a vice-presidential nominee needs to be able to answer. And there’s no way to look at her performance as anything save supporting evidence for the non-hysterical critique of her candidacy - that it’s just too much, too soon - and a splash of cold water for those of us with high hopes for her future on the national stage.

And in the Washington Post, Richard Cohen goes off on McCain, seizing on the Palin pick as a sign of how far gone the candidate is:

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains — his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that’s all — but just as honorably. No more, though.

His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir — the person in whose hands he would leave the country — is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

 

5 Responses to “Conservatives Turn On McCain-Palin”

  1. Richard Warnick Says:

    McCain’s choice of Palin was a fiasco. It answers the question of what kind of President he would be. A bad one, possibly worse than Bush.

  2. Leo Brown Says:

    The first question is, who is the real McCain? For my conservative friends, I would ask, is he a big government conservative? He has lived his whole working life as part of the federal government, as did his father, and his father before him If he is going to get 45 new nuclear plants, he is going to need an energy czar with corresponding powers. Having been for deregulation, he is now calling for new regulations on Wall Street.

    Then there is the question of what a President Palin would really be like. Alaska has hugely benefited from federal subsidies.

    Bush at least once talked about a humble foreign policy and once talked about being a uniter, not a divider. Worse that Bush? I hope we don’t get to find out.

  3. Albert O. Says:

    The first question is, who is the real McCain?

    He is whom ever he needs to be at the moment. This is how he suckers the likes of jd and Bob S. into supporting a repeat of the failed policies of the pass.

    Then there is the question of what a President Palin would really be like.

    With luck, we’ll never have see this question answered but, by all accounts I have seen, she’ll be a more disastrous president than W; and that, by the way, is no easy feat!

  4. Albert O. Says:

    Just how low will McSame go to win this election? He has become a shell of a man with nothing inside, and Palin is there only to prop him up.

    America will soon wake and smell the rat! Maybe, even jd and Bob S. will wake, too!

  5. Cliff Lyon Says:

    We are witnessing the The Fall. Like Adams Fall from grace.

    It seems he doesn’t really care anymore.

    As goes McCain, so goes the party. Good riddance!

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