The Importance of Gov. Palin

Gov. Palin’s acceptance speech at the RNC towed the party line as has not yet been done in the Republican Presidential campaign. Sen. McCain has generally tried to play maverick and I think we're seeing the real benefit she brings. She is red, through and through. It'll definitely be interesting to see how that plays out. It might, and hopefully will, just play into the Democratic argument of the ticket as, "four more years of the last eight." If you've noticed, the Democrats have largely remained silent for the past few days. I think now we're going to get a chance to start to hear some responses. 
 
I think the picking of Gov. Palin is the embodiment of the idea, "just like me." This has been a tactic of the GOP for years. If you look at the Bush campaign, it was all about being "just like me." He tells jokes. He believes in God and goes to church. He loves sports. He's the kind of guy I can have a beer with. Gov. Palin is that. Many see her as the ploy by the party to court the women's vote, but I think she's also, like you said, the evangelical vote, the hunter vote, snow vote, the frontier vote. She reacted to her time in office the way, I imagine, many folk would--banning books is a time honored tradition. So, yes it's cynical, but I think just leaving it at woman is too shallow.
 
This tactic makes for great campaigning, but terrible governing. I think this is going to have to be the line of criticism that the Democrats are going to have to take. They've been tying Pres. Bush to Sen. McCain for a good few months. They should try to do the same with Gov. Palin. Or maybe not. However, Sen. Obama did just spend a whole year trying to convince people he's just folk so it might backfire.
 
The scandal about the Palin daughter’s pregnancy should rightfully be off limits, absolutely. Both campaigns I think said that well. The media is just a little slow to listen, which is annoying. The media smells blood. They keep digging up facts, only some of which are relevant. I think I saw one headline that said that she never went to Ireland. I'm half expecting there to be an article on HuffPo about how she totally loved Dream Police in college or something. There are valid skeletons in her closet that need to be dragged out, and I think within the pregnancy scandal there is a valid issue that needs to be discussed. I don’t know how eloquently I can put it (and I know the Daily Show has already done a better job). We shouldn’t discuss this young woman’s pregnancy, but we should discuss the discussion itself. An important of the conservative and general Republican platforms is an exorcism of government from otherwise private matters like the family and individual determinations. Yes, this is a private matter. However, that exclusion of the government from the private sphere is premised on the belief that government shouldn’t choose, we should determine our own lives. This belief links to the Democratic positions on abortion (pro-choice) and sex ed. These Democratic positions insist that people should determine their own private lives, not the government. People should choose whether to abort their child. People should be educated about the world around them so they are better capable of making informed decisions. The same Republican platform that touts an insistence on a separation between the government and private matters also insists on using the governments hand to destroy autonomy by eliminating choice and education.
 
The secessionist party skeleton is another good example of an issue that needs discussing. If you're a "heartbeat away from the presidency" then you should probably be an absolute patriot. I think most Americans would agree, and the GOP laid out this requirement in their attacks on the Obama family. The GOP is failing its own criteria. They've failed the experience criteria and now the patriotism criteria.
 
"Troopergate" is particularly important because we've lived through too much Washington scandal. She may not be guilty, but I don't think that matters in this case. It certainly matters for her, but the role of the next administration is to restore trust in the institutions that make up the government and the only way anyone can do that is by being clean and ethically sound. I may very well be wrong, but I think the perceptions of people will be colored by the fact that she is potentially ethically unfit. People might see the system as bankrupt, a problem that we have endured too long. On the flip-side, a thorough trial might actually benefit the country and restore faith in our justice system.
 
What I think is most damaging about Gov. Palin is the reaction within the party. Publicly, the GOP is all for her, but there are rumors abounding about lack of faith in the ticket. People think she's a ploy, she's just a campaign tactic, that she will sink the ship. Whenever you pit the hopeless against the hopeful, the latter will always win. Hopefully.