McCain-Palin

Fox News is now confirming, via "sources within the McCain camp", that Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, has been chosen as John McCain's running mate. If this is indeed the case, then I have to hand it to McCain. This came out of nowhere...very few were giving Palin any chance as late as yesterday evening, and the blogosphere has been literally buzzing all morning. The cable news networks have been totally distracted from Obama's speech last night, and every one of them is talking about this incredible move by McCain.

I love this pick! Palin ticks all the boxes - the timing and out-of-left-field nature of this choice seriously upstages Obama when he was getting very good coverage after the speech, she helps McCain appeal to many of Hillary's discouraged supporters by simply being female, she will help to reassure the conservative base that they will be represented on this ticket, she's young, has (limited, but still more than Obama and Biden combined) executive experience as governor, and she's pretty much got to be the hottest VP ever!

This pick will energize the base, myself included, as no other choice could have done. She's relatively unknown, but the more conservatives get to know her, the more they will love her. Here's a little bit from her Wikipedia bio:

1. She's married to Todd, a native Yup'ik Eskimo, and one of her sons is about to be deployed to Iraq. She also has 3 daughters, and recently gave birth to another son who has Downs Syndrome.


2. She loves to hunt, ice-fish, snomobile, and is a lifetime member of the NRA.


3. She helped expose and rid Alaska's government of corrupt, pork-fat politicians within her own party.


4. She is a stong supporter of drilling in ANWR, and is staunchly pro-life.

This is very good news for conservatives and John McCain. I can't wait to see what happens to Obama's little "bump" in the polls.

Visitors From La-La Land

You gotta love old hippie singers. It seems to me that whenever God decides to grant someone musical or artistic talent, he throws something else in their psyche a little bit "off", just to make it fair. I'm not one to question the Maker, but it really makes it difficult for me to enjoy some of their genuinely good music when they can't keep their mouths shut about stuff outside of their own little fantasy land.

Apparently Jackson Brown joined the rest of us in the real world (well, Los Angeles, anyway) just long enough to sue John McCain for using one of his songs in a commercial. That's very mature. "I don't like you, so you can't play my song! Nanner-nanner-nanner!" I thought these people were supposed to be the champions of tolerance and freedom of expression?

Oh, right. That's only for people who agree with them.

What to do...

Well, the election picture seems to be finally taking some shape. I realize it's a long time until November, at least in terms of politics, but I can certainly see certain themes beginning to develop as we come closer to the Democratic nomination. First of all, I definitely see evidence that the long drawn-out Dem battle has given at least John McCain a shot at the White House. Whether that translates into anything other than a total bloodbath for Republicans down the line...well, not so much it seems. Before the knock-down drag-out between The Obamessiah and Hillary!, I saw very little chance for anything but a defeat for McCain. A perceived inability to excite the base (which still looks to be accurate), and the mind-altering Infatuation With Obama virus that had reached near epidemic proportions before the cure was introduced in the form of Rev. Wright Youtube footage, led me to believe that McCain's prospects were almost non-existent. But thankfully, the world was exposed to Rev. Wright's disturbed mind, and questions about Obama's judgment, if not character, were rightly raised. Despite what many in the media would have us believe, it has damaged Obama with a very large portion of the voting population. Too bad that doesn't seem to be contributing to a rise in the GOP brand...more on that later.

The other trend I see shaping up in this election is the distance McCain seems to be putting between himself and the conservative base. It's no surprise that he's moving to the center before the general election. Any candidate on either side knows they have to win the squishy middle of the voting public - those who could care less about the details of political policy or even politics in general until 24 hours before the election. But how well will this strategy work for someone who's support from the party's base was never really solidified? McCain seems to have forgotten, or just doesn't care, that hard-core conservatives, those who got out and beat the streets for W in 2000 and 2004, are having trouble getting behind his candidacy.

And thus, I find myself in a pickle. I really have tried to get fully behind McCain as a candidate. I joined his website email list, volunteered to help out at my local campaign office, etc. But every time I think I can get on board, he does something to deflate any enthusiasm I had built up. First, the N.C. GOP debacle; now, his apparent enthusiasm for saddling our already struggling economy with the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and cap-and-trade emissions control policy is a big turn-off. Don't get me wrong, we all know how successful Kyoto has been at actually accomplishing anything other than unnecessarily burdening economies. Take a look at the projected economic impact of policies designed to "fix" a problem that we can't even prove exists. And yet, John McCain is jumping on the Global Warming hysteria bandwagon instead of having the courage to stand up for a little common sense. I realize we Americans should be guilty about our success and clearly excessive use of natural resources, but the people in charge need to stay rooted in reality.

I just have to keep telling myself that McCain would be better than a surrendering socialist...maybe that'll get me through until November.

Cross Posted at Redstate.com