David Frum on Sarah Palin

David Frum's Diary on National Review Online: The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing. John McCain wanted a woman: good. He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally. He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart. And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency "on day one."

Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I'd guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.

Here's I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign's slogan is "country first." It's a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Comments

[Lois Appel]

Thank God there are still some honest and patriotic conservative commentators out there! I saw the Palin interview and was genuinely frightened. This is absurd, I know that these days the parties too often put politics before governance, not just the Bush adminstration, but both Clinton and Reagan before them, though to a lesser degree. But I have never seen anything like this from either party. She is clearly not qualified in the foreign polciy arena and to put her on the ticket as second in line is not just cynical it is, in my view, morally bankrupt as well. "Country first", no, get elected first and "by any means necessary".