More Thoughts On Palin

I have been thinking about the Palin pick for VP. We know that the left is hysterical about it. Since they have been hysterical for nearly eight years I'm not too worried about that. Still, it is amusing to see the depths to which they've sunk. To assert, with no evidence at all, that the youngest child belongs instead to her daughter. Fine if there were ANY evidence. Without, though, simply disgusting.

The frantic searching for a pic of Governor Palin in a bikini? OMG! Republicans won't vote for someone who swims! Yeah, right. But Peter, it's the taking off of some clothes! Earth to the left. Just how do y'all think we manage to have so many more children than you? Just because we mostly prefer that we get naked without a huge audience doesn't mean we don't LIKE naked.

The latest is some kind of rumor that their oldest child was conceived before they were married. Um, if true, even the most ardent Christian will say they might have made a mistake but they did the right thing afterward. And very well. The left is grasping at straws.

Thing is, I'm not much interested in the left. They're like seagulls, they fly in, make a lot of noise, flap their wings and poop all over everything and then leave.

I'm watching certain people in the conservative movement. Krauthammer hates the pick. I wonder how many elections Krauthammer has won? I have yet to see anyone important who has actually worked in elections in the Republican Party who isn't cheering. Well, except Hagel.

The Republican Party is a collection of factions, just as are the Democrats. There were a lot of those factions that flat out do not like the McCain pick. John McCain had a lot of people voting for him in the Primaries that will never vote for him in the general. He had the media tooting his horn only to turn on him the minute he clinched the nomination.

Let's look at some of the major factions in the Republican Party and how they look at McCain and now Palin. The country club Republicans like McCain. This is important because they have the money. Not as much as the Democrats but enough to where they are important. Without money nobody wins. This crowd either doesn't care about Palin or likes or dislikes her mildly, her effect is fairly neutral.

The Christian or Religious Right that everyone in the media loves to hate so much is a very important faction, they are the ones that work the phone banks and walk the precincts. They were lukewarm on McCain. The media were, as usual, saying that the Christians were going to vote for the Democrat this time. Fat chance but they were NOT going to be out walking precincts and manning phones. The RR crowd is REALLY excited about Palin. Unless one has actually won a few elections on the Republican side one has no idea how important this is.

The Paleoconservatives aren't happy about McCain. I don't know how they feel about Palin. I don't think there are enough of them to matter much, anymore. Pat Buchanan was their high water mark in the last fifty years and he never won an election to dogcatcher.

The Second Amendment crowd just barely tolerates McCain. That is another bunch that simply will not vote for Obambi but weren't going to get out and work for McCain. The 2A bunch lurves them some Palin, though. What's not to like, a moose huntin', commercial fishing Alaskan life member of the NRA? Governor Palin will not be saying, in front of reporters "can I get me a huntin' license here?" A la John Kerry.

The fiscal conservatives already liked McCain, Palin is just more for them.

The clean government types? They already like McCain, Palin is even better. Palin has a record of fighting corruption in her own Party.

The hawks? McCain has a son serving in Iraq, Palin's oldest is on his way there next month.

The last major faction is the (small l) libertarian wing of the Party. Now nobody with any libertarian leanings at all really trusts McCain. Alaska politics is libertarian. People in Alaska mostly want to be left alone. Otherwise why live where there are two seasons, winter and mosquito?

Personally I believe McCain just won the election. He pulled almost all of the competing factions of the Party with this choice. Not only that, she isn't a lawyer!