Sunday
Nov022008
The Inside Story on the Palin Nomination?
Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 23:07
If the election goes the way that I'm suspecting next Tuesday, one of the Republican post-mortems will be on how the McCain campaign settled on Sarah Palin as Vice-Presidential material likely to win over undecided voters.
Through a stroke of fortune, I just picked up an inside lead on that story. At an academic dinner, I was seated next to two political operators close to the Republican Party. Both were resigned to an Obama victory, and both were somewhat gloomily considering what the Republicans might do to repair the damage after 4 November. Both also were clearly unimpressed with Palin.
So I ventured the obvious question, "Why did they think that the Republican Party made such a damaging mistake in the choice of their Number Two?"
The first part of the answer had no surprises. John McCain had indeed favoured former Democrat Joe Lieberman as his Vice President and had been told, predictably, by his handlers that two old white guys weren't exactly a vote-grabbing combination. Then came the twist. I had always thought that McCain's staff had pushed Palin on him but the two operatives were forthright that it was Big John who reached out for Sarah's name. His staff, with less than a week before the VP had to be announced, scrambled to Alaska to interview a Governor about whom they knew little.
Why had McCain made so bold and unexpected a move?
The two Republicans offered some basics. It was known in GOP circles that Palin was a well-liked Governor, and she had a bit of the clean, maverick image in taking on and taking out some of the Alaskan political establishment. And there was that dangerous whiff of political opportunity: pick a woman and bring over the disaffected women who had supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
Still, I ventured, there were other women with longer track records --- records of steadiness and political shrewdness --- like Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. Even with the notion of McCain as an unconventional politician, why such a big gamble?
That's when my two dinner companions offered a chapter raising this political story to more than run-of-the-mill. They explained that certain right-wing, GOP-supporting political journals --- either for profile (Weekly Standard) or essential funds (National Review) --- put on cruises where readers could hobnob with middle-ranking politicos as well as writers and editors. One of the popular destination for those cruises is the Alaskan Fjords. So the scene was set for Governor Palin to meet and greet the cruise-goers, winning kudos for helping out the journals and more than admiring smiles from the (almost all male) editorial staff.
So the somewhat tangled networks of money, media, and politics put forth America's Hockey Mom for her run at a top office. It's not quite the "neo-conservative" conspiracy that one publication breathily described last month, but it does explains why certain scribblers like William Kristol, via the New York Times as well as the Weekly Standard, continued to push Palin even as her political stock turned from admiration to ridicule.
It's a nice little closer to the Bush years. In the right place at the right time, folks like Kristol can punch way above their column weight by making the right contacts and pushing the (very) right folks towards key political locations. That doesn't make them wise, however, just lucky in matching convenient place and time. And no amount of luck, in the end, can cover up a marked lack of wisdom, both in their own political judgement and in that of those who they choose to promote.
Through a stroke of fortune, I just picked up an inside lead on that story. At an academic dinner, I was seated next to two political operators close to the Republican Party. Both were resigned to an Obama victory, and both were somewhat gloomily considering what the Republicans might do to repair the damage after 4 November. Both also were clearly unimpressed with Palin.
So I ventured the obvious question, "Why did they think that the Republican Party made such a damaging mistake in the choice of their Number Two?"
The first part of the answer had no surprises. John McCain had indeed favoured former Democrat Joe Lieberman as his Vice President and had been told, predictably, by his handlers that two old white guys weren't exactly a vote-grabbing combination. Then came the twist. I had always thought that McCain's staff had pushed Palin on him but the two operatives were forthright that it was Big John who reached out for Sarah's name. His staff, with less than a week before the VP had to be announced, scrambled to Alaska to interview a Governor about whom they knew little.
Why had McCain made so bold and unexpected a move?
The two Republicans offered some basics. It was known in GOP circles that Palin was a well-liked Governor, and she had a bit of the clean, maverick image in taking on and taking out some of the Alaskan political establishment. And there was that dangerous whiff of political opportunity: pick a woman and bring over the disaffected women who had supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
Still, I ventured, there were other women with longer track records --- records of steadiness and political shrewdness --- like Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. Even with the notion of McCain as an unconventional politician, why such a big gamble?
That's when my two dinner companions offered a chapter raising this political story to more than run-of-the-mill. They explained that certain right-wing, GOP-supporting political journals --- either for profile (Weekly Standard) or essential funds (National Review) --- put on cruises where readers could hobnob with middle-ranking politicos as well as writers and editors. One of the popular destination for those cruises is the Alaskan Fjords. So the scene was set for Governor Palin to meet and greet the cruise-goers, winning kudos for helping out the journals and more than admiring smiles from the (almost all male) editorial staff.
So the somewhat tangled networks of money, media, and politics put forth America's Hockey Mom for her run at a top office. It's not quite the "neo-conservative" conspiracy that one publication breathily described last month, but it does explains why certain scribblers like William Kristol, via the New York Times as well as the Weekly Standard, continued to push Palin even as her political stock turned from admiration to ridicule.
It's a nice little closer to the Bush years. In the right place at the right time, folks like Kristol can punch way above their column weight by making the right contacts and pushing the (very) right folks towards key political locations. That doesn't make them wise, however, just lucky in matching convenient place and time. And no amount of luck, in the end, can cover up a marked lack of wisdom, both in their own political judgement and in that of those who they choose to promote.
tagged John McCain, Sarah Palin, US Election in US Politics
John McCain, Sarah Palin, US Election in US Politics
Reader Comments (2)
I think Bill Kristol's reputation has been completely wiped out during this election -- that is, assuming McCain and Palin lose.
He doesn't give up easily, though. Have a look at his rather desperate "advice to liberals" in the event of a McPain-Palin surprise victory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/opinion/03kristol.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=login