MORE REACTION TO PALIN….Noah Millman on Sarah Palin:
I realize, of course, that she’s totally unqualified to be President at this point in time. If McCain were to die in February 2009, I hope Palin would have the good sense to appoint someone who is more ready to be President to be her Vice President, on the understanding that she would then resign and be appointed Vice President by her successor.
….What’s the Vice Presidency for, anyhow? Arguably, it’s not for anything at all….Palin fits a different model. She’s not a President-in-waiting; she’s a President-in-training. That’s what Quayle was supposed to be, and to the extent he failed it was mostly because of his own personal qualities.
And this is from a guy who likes her! Jeebus.
Lessee. What else? Ramesh Ponnuru weighs in here. Andrew Sullivan has two letters from readers here and here. The second one echoes my reaction to McCain’s body language while he was introducing Palin. McCain was obviously pleased at the idea of being a father figure to a young woman who would accept his lead without question and never challenge him. Elsewhere, Steve Doocy, who apparently read my joke earlier this morning, seriously suggests that living across the Bering Strait from Russia makes Palin a foreign policy expert. And Jon Chait notes that a couple of bloggers have already unearthed the fact that Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 2000:
Neither of them really dwells on the significance of this, so I wanted to back up for those who don’t remember the circumstances of the time. This isn’t like supporting Buchanan in the GOP primary. When Palin was supporting him, Buchanan was running as a third (actually, fourth) party insurgent, appealing to conservatives who thought George W. Bush was too moderate. This suggests that she’s not just a run-of-the-mill movement conservative but a hard-core right-winger.
That’s all for now. Conservatives on the tube are really, really struggling to defend this choice. I almost feel sorry for them. I’m sticking to my guns that before long this will be seen for the debacle it is.
