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Sarah Palin enters her cocoon

September 5th, 2008
By ELROD

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I didn’t watch McCain’s speech tonight so I cannot offer any commentary on it. I’m still intrigued by McCain’s first and only major decision as a candidate: the selection of Sarah Palin as VP.

What do we know about what she brings to the ticket at this point?

1. She gives a great speech. She’s media savvy and appears confident in public.
2. She’s an outsider, from a state few Americans have visited and carries a unique and compelling biography.
3. She appeals to the hardcore Christianist base of the GOP.

But is that enough? Where does she stand on, oh I don’t know, the issues that face this country?
What does she think about health care? Not just that special needs children will be a priority, but how and through what program?
What about the future of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan?
What does she think about Russia?
Or the Israel/Palestinian crisis?
What is her response to the housing crisis?
How about the falling dollar?
Trade with China?
Free trade in general?
What about Federal tax policy?
How about education?
Or homeland security?
Or immigration?

What does Sarah Palin think about the national and international issues that face America today?

Unfortunately, if we had any intention of finding out what she thinks of these things as she plans to embark on the “heartbeat-away-from-the-Presidency” journey in 60 days, we will not find out any answers soon.

According to McCain spokesman Nicole Wallace, Sarah Palin will tell people all they need to know through her speeches., and not through interviews with the press. This spokeswoman seems to believe that reading a prepared speech off a teleprompter - however excitedly - is a sign of her actual knowledge of affairs.

My worst fears about her so far appear to be true. She is a very shallow candidate who never prepared for the role that a desperate John McCain thrust her into. She has spent no time developing a national profile, advancing a coherent agenda, laying out a vision for the country, spelling out her ideology. Nothing.

And now we hear from McCain’s spokeswoman that we will never hear answers to those questions because scripted rallies are enough. Yes, media-bashing is old hat for the Republicans. Then go on Fox News and meet with Chris Wallace if you want to avoid the more liberal networks. Go to some of the local media; I’m sure folks here in Tennessee would love to interview her and ask her about air pollution here in East Tennessee, or the coal industry, or science policy at Oak Ridge.

At some point the Obama campaign is going to start setting up a mocking “face the questions” clock, and she’s going to have to crawl out of her cocoon just to avoid accusations of being stuck in a cone of silence. Obviously, her debate will give a window into her basic sense of America’s challenges.

But the American people deserve to know more. Barack Obama was similarly charged with hiding behind a teleprompter. But if you watch him in interviews - like with Bill O’Reilly even - or in town hall forums where he takes very detailed questions, he clearly knows how to answer them. Yes, he says “um” a lot, but he clearly gives a coherent answer.

Maybe Sarah Palin could answer the same questions. Maybe she is being hidden from the press purely out of pique at their supposed mistreatment of her. But that won’t fly for too long.

The stagecraft and introduction is over. Sarah Palin acquitted herself well in a friendly setting. She proved herself a partisan fighter who rallies the GOP base - and the Democratic base. But she has come nowhere close enough to crossing the seriousness threshold not as a VP candidate, but as an actual Vice President.

Let’s hope Nicole Wallace is wrong and Sarah Palin starts taking questions and letting us know what she thinks about life outside her own biography and her own state. I’ll be waiting.



This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 2:06 am and is filed under Sarah Palin, Newsweek Blogitics, At TMV. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 19 Comments

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    How can anyone actually vote for a person whose views they do not know? I thought this was a democracy and we got a chance to actually find out about our candidates. Excuse me if my meme the next four years is about all those (Republican) idiots who blindly voted for party without bothering to even care about the candidate's policies.

    I know a lot of fun, bubbly vivacious and spunky people. Just because I like them doesn't mean they would make a good president (or vice president).

    To me this is proof that the Republican Party is truly partisan and not a party about competence or even change. These Republicans are voting for someone simply because the candidate is a Republican.

    I mean, come on! How can one truly say they are going to vote for Palin because they want change in the government when they don't have a clue as to Palin's positions on the most important issues our country faces and Palin won't give interviews?
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    If she actually WROTE her own speeches that'd be one thing, but from what I've read she has Bush's old speech writer doing that for her. If she refuses to grant interviews or publish material defining her views on the subjects you listed, it all leads me to believe she'll just be a puppet for people in the Bush administration. I'm sure Republicans are fine with that, but are independents?
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    McCain's pick of Palin for VP is ironic and impressively cynical . . . for its disregard of the very issues Elrod cites:

    Having hammered Obama for being a "Celebrity" . . . McCain now appears to have picked his running mate precisely for her "celebrity potential"!

    McCain may not make it to the cover of "People", "US" and "Redbook". . . but Palin can and will. Elrod notes a whole swathe of issues folks know nothing about her views on.
    But does this not reflect McCain's Policy-Lite strategy? (his policy platform is notably lighter than Obama's.) I have argued that this gives Obama a clear advantage . . . and it may be that McCain's team agrees.

    McCain's team has made this an election of personality and "narrative" over policies and issues. Incredibly, liberals and the media emphasized her strength by tacky attacks on Palin's family.

    A lot of conservatives (cf: Noonan) I have talked to are secretly as horrified as Elrod at someone as "light" as Palin being so close to the Presidency.

    But we now have to rally the wagons around her, given the nature of some of the attacks. It would have been far wiser to continually hammer her slim resume, but liberals went personal and nasty...and we had to protect her.

    StockboySF said: "I know a lot of fun, bubbly vivacious and spunky people. Just because I like them doesn't mean they would make a good president".

    Exactly!

    Palin was a cynically inspired pick.

    It undercuts McCain's memes of "Obama the Inexperienced" and "Obama the Celebrity".

    But now McCain has his own personal "Celebrity" . . . which it seems is really what matters to McCain. I suspect it implies McCain did not think he could win on the basis of policies or ideas.

    I both admire and am appalled at McCain's cynicism.
    My partner -- who is very Left, and a Hillary-supporter now voting for Obama -- was annoyed at feeling sympathetic to Palin when she was being criticized in the media for not staying home and taking care of her child. Her vote will still be for Obama, but again she is very Left (yes, I am conservative, so our relationship is rather interesting at times :) . . . while it seems here McCain has made an inspired cynical play for Moderate Women.

    My advice to Democrats would be to lay off Palin's family -- if you make the personal political, McCain will win.
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    I propose we kick Elrod out of TMV.

    Why? Because I just had to delete an entire column I was working on last night. Elrod already wrote pretty much the entire thing.

    *sigh*
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    I suggest that folkes do a bit of reasearch on their own to get a feel for her way of thinking and managing and not relying overly much on what pudits and campaign staffs will try to feeed you.

    For Example, certain records are easily found like Palin's vetos and letters explaining them. In Alaska there is the line item veto so this is a particularly good reference item to look at, since she can veto some parts and not others and leave little doubt as to what she really supports. Take a look at some:

    The Bill: http://www.votesmart.org/billtext/20131.pdf
    The Veto Letter: http://www.votesmart.org/vetotext/20131.pdf

    Here is another

    http://www.votesmart.org/official_veto_detail.p...

    and a third

    http://www.votesmart.org/official_veto_detail.p...


    He is another site with lots of information on her that is not stongly influenced by partisan agendas

    http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm

    So, you see, there are resources out there that you can find to help answer your own questions if you seek them out. Most folkes take only what the pundits prenet them with and don't do their homework, but if you really want to know more than what is spoon fed to you, often by folkes with agendas, its well work a few clicks on your computer to become more informed.
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    well, in the candidates defense I'm sure they all have help- but it seems to me hers was a cookie cutter speech and didn't really tell much about her stances ( other than the obvious fact she's a hockey mom married to a snowmobiler and ex Mayor of a small town and Gov of Ak.)
    McCain's whole campaign ahs been a referendum on Obama rather than a strong "maverick" platform- he seems to be talking the talk and not walking the walk.
    I am so dissapointed in him, he had such promise in 2000, but a partisan hackjob killed that and he rolled over for them like Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army. Too little, too late.
    I am seriously wondering why people have not looked at this man, his traumatic life experiences and wondered if this has had any impact-maybe not so much visible when you are one out of 100 members of a Senate but put onto the national stage every blemish and imperfection becomes magnified. Dr. Estes? Your thoughts?
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    McCain is doing fine, he had to shore up the right, Sarah Palin helped him to do this, now he can get back toward the center and finish pitching the big tent. Obama and Biden are both on the left side of theirs and though Obama can stretch his arms towards the middle they can't quite reach because he feet are still stuck on the left where his voting record is. Obama can talk the moderate talk somewhat, but since he has never walked a moderate or bi-partisan walk, talking shouldn't be able to get him far with folks who have studied his record and keep informed unless they are left of center by a good margin.

    There are exceptions, however, one of my best friends, the most conservativve guy I know is voting for Obama. He hates everything Obama's platform stands for, but he is more concerned with McCain "the RINO: as he puts it (when he isn't saying McCain the Democrat) leading the GOP to sucess and thus making it harder for a Conservative hardliner to be at the head of the ticket again. Yes sad but true, this buddy is Pro-life, Pro-Guns, pro GITMO, Pro-Bush, Anti-Affirmative action, Anti- Public Healthcare, Pro-School vouchers, Pro-Patriot Act, Pro-Warrantless Wiretapping, etc., yet he is voting for Obama. He knows with Obama victorious the GOP will never move the the middle to work with him. Sad but true, but this is what my buddy thinks is best for the country, so I support his right to express it and applaud him for doing what he thinks is best, no matter how entirely moronic I think the thought process itself was.
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    Its smart. They are controlling the message and the messenger-- so that her strengths can be highlighted, and her weaknesses disguised. That way they can saturate the media with "Reaganesque" pictures of her hunting caribou, and at the same time appeal to soccer moms with the tough hockey mom meme.

    No embarassing questions about Troopergate. No indelicate inquiries about her advocacy of "abstinence only" sex education, and its apparent failure in her own family. No inconvenient queries about her rather thin resume or her relationship with Ted "Veco's best pal" Stevens.

    Just bring her out to give 5 star speeches, that make conservatives remember why they vote for Republicans. Its brilliant, I tell you!
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    BTW, how nervy to hype change and pick another VP whose moves are swathed in secrecy. How can we expect more transparency and accountability in our elected officials if they are kept under lock and key. Voters need to be reminded of what they didn't like about Dick Cheney (who I'll admit, was always better behind the scenes and couldn't give a speech the way Palin can)

    They can lock her up when the press starts sniffing around, but bring her out for big GOP fundraisers where the 3 G's hit all the right notes.