Hurricane Sarah

Well let’s see now. Her daughter is seventeen, unmarried, and pregnant. Her husband was arrested for DWI 22 years ago. Somebody has accused her of misusing her office to get her former brother in law fired. There is a rumor going around that her four month old Down syndrome baby isn’t really hers but her daughter’s. She presents herself as a reformer who turned down the bridge to nowhere but she’s a fraud because as mayor of a small town she lobbied for and got some earmark legislation. It all raises questions about the McCain campaign’s vetting process. Baloney, McCain says he knew about all this before he offered Governor Palin the nomination. He doesn’t consider any of it pertinent. So what’s the question? There isn’t any. It’s just a smoke screen for the press to engage in an orgy of malicious gossip. Now don’t get me wrong. The press has not only the right but the obligation to do its own vetting, especially of a candidate who is not well known nationally. But vetting does not include idle speculation, slander, or outrageously catty remarks. Yesterday The New York Times carried no fewer than three front page articles on the governor, all of them essentially about her children. One went so far as to make the blatantly sexist suggestion that a young mother of three has no business running for Vice President. She should stay home with her kids. Nancy Pelosi has five children. Can you imagine them saying that of the Speaker of the House? Anyone who did would find themselves confronting a feminist lynch mob. The hypocrisy is palpable.

The whole brouhaha should be good for Republicans. For one thing nothing rallies the conservative base like the mainstream media ganging up on one of their own. They haven’t been this excited since Dan Rather used forged documents to smear George Bush. For another the MSM will no doubt be shamed into finally focusing on issues, and soon. I can’t remember when lines were more sharply drawn in a presidential election. National security, health care, energy, global warming, and the economy all are major concerns with the two parties adopting radically different approaches. Of the four candidates, Sarah Palin is the most knowledgeable on energy and holds the clearest views on its relationship to global warming. Given the impact gas prices and climate change have on the economy, and the effect the economy has on our ability to deal with health care and national security, she has a lot to contribute. This should be interesting. Not that I expect a lot of clear eyed analysis from the media, but we do need a rational public discussion and we may finally be about to get it. The measures we adopt, or don’t adopt, over the next few years seem likely to have an outsized impact for several generations.

The feeding frenzy over her daughter’s pregnancy should answer any questions about the treatment a conservative woman can expect from the media. We should expect a continuing campaign of veiled charges and innuendo. I don’t think it will have much effect on the public at large however. We’ve grown accustomed to these shenanigans and learned to take them with a very large grain of salt. Committed Obama supporters will be outraged of course if so much as a jay walking ticket turns up in her background, but the rest of us will remember when Bill Clinton’s perjury didn’t rise to the level of high crime or misdemeanor. Her real test will be in how she reinforces the first impression she made when Senator McCain introduced her. If she rises to the occasion in her acceptance speech tonight and in her coming debate with Joe Biden she will put to rest any question about her qualifications, or the McCain vetting process. We have every reason to expect she will. I expect big TV audiences.