It's Not Easy Being Green

September 15, 2008

Within milliseconds of the announcement of John McCain's base-energizing selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential running mate, Democrats were playing the experience card in their hasty and ill-advised criticism of the political newcomer. Ignoring the fact that their own candidate has no presidential credentials whatsoever, they attacked Palin for being too "green."

Dems, whistling past the graveyard, have continued since then to assert that the choice of newcomer Palin "takes the experience issue off the table." As we might expect, when they make their case about Palin's lack of experience, the doomsayers on the left necessarily bring up the likelihood of McCain's falling ill or dying in office. After all, he is 72 years old, and, as they assert, "actuarially speaking" there's a good likelihood that he'll not survive to the end of his first term.

Forget, for a minute, that the Democrats, in addition to playing the experience card, are also playing the age card with gallows humor worthy of an 18th century cake-eating French executioner. The problem with their logic is that Democrats have an experienced president only if Barack Obama becomes gravely ill or dies in office.
The question becomes, "Which would Americans rather have, a President who's devoted his brief interlude in the Senate to helping Nancy Pelosi and company make sure that meaningful legislative activity grinds to a halt, or a Vice President who's spent the last several years as a local and state chief executive fighting corruption and reining in 'big oil' by returning money to the people of her state via a $1,200.00 rebate generated through a graduated tax increase on the oil companies?"

While Obama cowered behind the relative anonymity that being one of a hundred U.S. Senators provides as he amassed the most liberal voting record in that legislative body, Palin was out front, fighting corruption at the highest level in Alaska politics, bringing down the state chairman of her own Republican Party on ethics charges. Even though she's running for Vice President while Obama is running for the presidency, Palin's executive credentials arguably make her more suited than Obama to assume the highest office in the land.

It took the King of Parse, Bill Clinton, to finally find a way to make the Democratic candidate's inexperience appear to be a positive. In his Convention Speech last week, Clinton, applauding himself as usual, pointed out that he was criticized for exactly that reason during the 1992 campaign, but that he went on to have a "successful" run as Commander-In-Chief nonetheless. Of course, that depends on what the meaning of "success" is.

In the left's rush to spinment after Palin's being named to the ticket on Friday, one MSNBC commentator allowed as though Palin would be a viable candidate until, and I quote, "Biden eviscerates her in the Vice Presidential debate." She followed that up with, "I haven't heard Palin speak, but I think that could happen."

We'll see about that, to be sure. Perhaps the commentator should have waited until after Palin's acceptance speech before she offered her assessment, given that Palin's performance elicited this from Democrat Camille Paglia: "That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is tough as nails." One gets the sense that someone with Palin's strength of character, one who's confronted and brought to heel people from her own political party and the most powerful industry in the world, is not exactly quaking in her mukluks at the thought of debating Joe Biden.

It's interesting that the issue of color should come down, not to black and white, but to green. While the Obama campaign, and even Obama himself, claim to be color-blind, exactly the opposite is the case, and the selection of Sarah Palin is likely to result in Obama's having to reveal his true colors. Obama's associations with the likes of leftist terrorists Bill Ayers and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright have already demonstrated his Marxist leanings; the selection of Palin insures that to the Democratic candidate's well established credentials as a "red" will be added confirmation that he is indeed too green to become our President.