And the Conservative base goes wild. Seriously wild.
Read this BlackFive Post and comment section to see how wild.
Read anyone of Rod Dreher’s posts on the subject (this one in particular). Keep in mind that he is someone who has said they would not vote for McCain.
Instapundit has a more balanced roundup of reactions.
The Volokh Conspiracy blows my mind with a collection of comments from Hillary supporters.
Regardless of the outcome, I am sorry that Palin was dragged into this election. It would have been better for her to stay in Alaska. But from McCain’s perspective, this was a good choice.
Sure he gives up the lack of experience line of attack. But he never could use this without reminding everyone that he an old man who has been in Washington forever. Besides, anyone who truly cared about experience was not going to vote for Obama anyway. So I don’t think McCain gave up a lot in that regards.
In return, McCain gets someone who can fire up the Republican base with out looking too scary to non base types, go head to head with Obama in both public speaking and good looks, and appeal to all those people for whom the gender of a candidate matters (except for those who think that nobody but a real man is fit for office. But what are they going to do, vote for Obama?).
One wrinkle on all this has not been mentioned is that Palin’s only real accomplishment has been to go after corruption in her own party. I wonder if this means that McCain wants to go after the rumors of corruption surrounding the political machine that put Obama in Congress. If that is true, I hope his people checked out the allegations that Palin was improperly involved in the firing of a trooper real throughly.
Edit: Here is the Wall Street Journal on the firing of the trooper….
He said afterwards that Gov. Palin and her husband had pressured him to remove a state trooper who was a former brother-in-law she and her family had feuded with. Gov. Palin denies that, saying she removed the commissioner she appointed 18 months ago because she wants “a new direction,” and offered him a job as liquor board director which he turned down.
The case stemmed from a messy divorce between the trooper, Mike Wooten, and his wife, Molly, who is Gov. Palin’s younger sister. In 2005, Gov. Palin alleged the trooper had threatened to harm her father and sister and that he had engaged in numerous instances of official misconduct, including using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and shooting a moose without a proper permit, according to state documents. In one instance, she told state investigators, she overheard him on the telephone threatening her sister: “I’m gonna f—shoot your dad. He’s gonna get a lead bullet.”
Mr. Wooten told investigators he tested a Taser on the boy at his request, thought he was within his rights to kill the moose and never threatened the Palins. An internal police investigation substantiated the moose and Tasering charges, but threw out most of the rest. He was ordered suspended for 10 days in 2006. He declined comment through a spokesman with the Public Safety Employees Association.
Many of Gov. Palin’s supporters dismiss the trooper matter as trouble being stirred up by her enemies. “Many of those who had been in positions of power and authority have been very envious over the past year and a half with Gov. Palin’s great popularity,” says David Carey, mayor of Soldotna, Alaska.
He tested a Taser on a boy and only got suspended for 10 days? If this is true I can see why McCain is not to worried about the whole thing.