Under The Bus

With the post-defeat recriminations among Republicans and particularly the McCain-Palin camps in full swing, I want to revisit what I wrote about Palin a few hours after McCain put her on the ticket. Some snippets from that post:

Some perspective: I've both lived and worked in Alaska, and have been to Wasilla....Wasilla is a nice town in a great state. But there's Hawaii, Indonesia, Kenya, Washington, and the south side of Chicago. And there's Wasilla. There's absolutely no way you can stand in the middle of that small town and think that a 44-year-old whose formative personal and professional experience comes from there is ready to lead the free world....Could we see the stamps in her passport, please?....Those same conservatives who just discovered they're big Palin fans -- no doubt after first making a few phone calls to see what they think -- would do well to remember the lessons from twenty summers ago....If they were really fans of Palin's, they'd prefer to wait a couple of election cycles instead of clamoring for a ticket to Quayle: The Sequel. But Republicans' Bush-perfected habit of subordinating competence to personal and political expedience continues. Throwing basically decent people into jobs they're not ready for à la Miers, Gonzales, McClellan, and Brownie should offend anyone who is truly interested in having competent people enter public service, because the inevitable result and ensuing public scorn make the best ones think twice before leaving the private sector....If McCain loses, hopefully any damage she suffers won't affect her future political viability. It would have been better -- for the country, conservatism, and ultimately Palin herself -- if she had a chance to mature a bit as a national figure and leader, away from the harsh scrutiny and 24-hour news cycle. But we've learned a lot about John McCain during this campaign. And in that respect, at least, his choice of Palin makes perfect sense.

I think most of that, which I wrote on the same day McCain selected Palin, stands up pretty well. Despite her manifest lack of readiness for the vice presidency -- which I found even more distressing than I expected -- and her shameful indulgence of the anti-Obama mob's darkest instincts, I have a latent soft spot for her (or perhaps a small, idealized part of what she represents). When Palin flubbed a debate or interview question, I was more angry with McCain than scornful of her. I think the cheap shots the McCain flacks are taking now are pathetic and cowardly, and say more about them and McCain himself than about her.

If I get around to it (unlikely for now) I'll post a "Memo to Sarah" with some advice on how to spend the next couple of years, assuming she's serious about 2012.