Half-Baked Quinnette

An observer recently returned Down Below from being Up North, Robert Dillon, is whelmed by The Geezer's pick for VP. Really. In an aside, wait until the MSM gets a whim of Palin's bat quano chums in the Alaska Independence Party. Google the AIP and see what you get. In the meantime, if this is (fair & balanced) faint praise.



[x An Alaskan Abroad Blog]
Thoughts on Palin
By Robert A. Dillon

Here's state Rep. Mike Doogan's response to John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as vice-presidential running mate:

John McCain looked all over the United States to find the single Republican who is qualified to be, as the saying goes, a heartbeat away from the presidency, and he came up with Sarah Palin.

Really?

Sure, I suppose that many Alaskans are feeling a surge of pride that someone from our state has gotten a spot on the big stage. And most Alaskans like Palin. I know I do.

But let's be honest here. Her resume is as thin as the meat in a vending machine sandwich. I'm thinking being mayor of Wasilla doesn't qualify her. And she's less than two years into her first term as governor. Except for her high-profile gas pipeline legislation -- which I like a lot -- she doesn't have much to show. Oil taxes? Most of that work was done by the legislature. Ethics? Ditto. And her role in killing the much-touted Bridge to Nowhere? Talk about coming in after the battle is over and bayoneting the wounded.

And there's a growing sense that the government isn't running all that well, that all that's keeping the wheels from coming off is that 25,000 state employees show up for work every day.

The long and short of it is this: We're not sure she's a competent governor of Alaska. And yet McCain, who is no spring chicken, has decided she's the best choice to replace him as president if he should win and then fall afoul of the Grim Reaper.

Sarah Palin?

Really?

I can see that it makes some sense in terms of the election campaign. McCain's hard up against it. He's dragging eight years of George W. Bush -- hands down the worst president in American history -- behind him like the ball and chain it is. He's not the most engaging person himself. And he's facing an opponent in Barack Obama who shows all the earmarks of being a transformational candidate, someone who is rewriting the rules of American politics just by being who he is. I've seen two others like him in my lifetime, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and Obama looks like the real deal.

So McCain needs help, and Palin brings some. She's a woman. She's young. She's good looking. She's got a good story to tell, and a knack for dealing with the media. McCain's choice of her came out of left field, but at least it was in the ballpark.

But debating foreign policy with Joe Biden? What's she going to do? Hit him with her briefing book? If Palin has two thoughts about foreign policy, she's managed to keep them to herself. Ditto health care. National energy policy. Fiscal policy. You could make a long, long list, but I'll stop there. She's going to need a lot of handlers feeding her a lot of talking points, and she's going to have to hope that the discussion only goes about yay-deep.

She's also going to have to hope that the national media is as pliable as Alaska's has been. Palin doesn't like people criticizing her, and she's as competitive as any linebacker you ever met. If the campaign gets a little rough and tumble, that could be a bad combination.

So she could be great as a candidate. Or so so. Or blow up on the pad. But if the McCain-Palin ticket should win? Yikers. There's no way on God's green earth that she's prepared to be president of the United States. The only consolation for me is remembering that J. Danforth Quayle once held the job she's trying to get, and the world didn't end.

But Sarah Palin?

Really?

[Robert A. Dillon grew up in Indiana and moved to Alaska for his first job as a reporter for the Anchorage Times. After the paper closed in 1992, went to Central Europe as a free-lance photographer. Dillon made his way back to Alaska. He lived above the Arctic Circle, writing and photographing the Inupiat and Yup’ik Eskimos, and learning to be a dog musher. Most recently, Dillon has relocated to Washington, DC as the political correspondent for the Energy Intelligence Group reporting on Congress, the White House, and federal agencies for Oil Daily and more than a dozen international trade publications. Dillon contributes analysis of energy markets and policy to CNN and NPR.]

Copyright © 2008 Robert A. Dillon

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