Sarah Palin
This woman is a serious candidate who is going to play well. She is, in my opinion, under qualified. She should not be let near foreign policy. Her record in office, and as a political actor, such as it is, suggests a very great lack of judgment. Yet she will rally rural America, she will make inroads to the suburbs because the Democrats won't neutralise abortion as an issue, and she will allow Republicans to escape responsibility for the deficit.
The way she is being attacked is incompetent, over-the-top, and reminiscent of the failed way that the 'Left' and internal opponents dealt with Margaret Thatcher. I wrote yesterday that Barack Obama was never to be underestimated; I want to add today, nor should Sarah Palin be.
That speech she made yesterday was low-down dirty, mischievous and conversational enough to have been made by Richard Nixon, and considerably more convincing than his efforts in the fifties.
UPDATE: The Palin Speech seems to have had an unexpected effect. Instead of reaching for the smear machine, Obama and Biden kept on message; and the Obama campaign, as a result of the fear of God (probably literally) Palin put into Democrats, made $10 millions in donations. McCain made $1 million. This election campaign continues to be counter-intuitive and, given the way the polls are so unreliable, highly unpredictable. I notice that Obama has broken 50% in some polls, which suggests to me that Hillary Democrats with half a brain or more have gone to him in a way their heroine could never have encouraged. What's better--watching what Palin does to these people's heads, or watching what the thought of Obama does to her?
I do not, unfortunately, live in the USA, pay US taxes, or breathe the air of a genuinely free, get-up-and go sort of a country. We have Gordon Brown doing a George Lazenby tribute (not that he was a bad Bond) and the English to deal with, so don't be too hard on me if you've taken offence.
This woman is a serious candidate who is going to play well. She is, in my opinion, under qualified. She should not be let near foreign policy. Her record in office, and as a political actor, such as it is, suggests a very great lack of judgment. Yet she will rally rural America, she will make inroads to the suburbs because the Democrats won't neutralise abortion as an issue, and she will allow Republicans to escape responsibility for the deficit.
The way she is being attacked is incompetent, over-the-top, and reminiscent of the failed way that the 'Left' and internal opponents dealt with Margaret Thatcher. I wrote yesterday that Barack Obama was never to be underestimated; I want to add today, nor should Sarah Palin be.
That speech she made yesterday was low-down dirty, mischievous and conversational enough to have been made by Richard Nixon, and considerably more convincing than his efforts in the fifties.
UPDATE: The Palin Speech seems to have had an unexpected effect. Instead of reaching for the smear machine, Obama and Biden kept on message; and the Obama campaign, as a result of the fear of God (probably literally) Palin put into Democrats, made $10 millions in donations. McCain made $1 million. This election campaign continues to be counter-intuitive and, given the way the polls are so unreliable, highly unpredictable. I notice that Obama has broken 50% in some polls, which suggests to me that Hillary Democrats with half a brain or more have gone to him in a way their heroine could never have encouraged. What's better--watching what Palin does to these people's heads, or watching what the thought of Obama does to her?
I do not, unfortunately, live in the USA, pay US taxes, or breathe the air of a genuinely free, get-up-and go sort of a country. We have Gordon Brown doing a George Lazenby tribute (not that he was a bad Bond) and the English to deal with, so don't be too hard on me if you've taken offence.
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