CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Oct. 7, 2008 – 1:58 a.m.
Analysis: Palin’s Lost Luster a Gain for Obama
By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff
When Republican presidential candidate John McCain named unheralded Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to his ticket at the end of August, Republicans were quick to draw a parallel between the surprise GOP vice presidential pick and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama .
They believed their own dynamic newcomer could match or better Obama’s credentials and stage performance— helping them make their case against the first-term Illinois senator, whom McCain, a four-term Senate incumbent from Arizona, continues to dismiss as unprepared to be president.
“The choice is Obama vs. Palin, and she has done things rather than talk about things,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham , a close McCain confidante, told CQ Politics at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn., held in the week after McCain introduced Palin to voters across the nation. “Compared to Barack Obama , she is ready to be president of the United States by a country mile.”
Palin knocked her convention speech out of the park, giving many viewers the sense that the Republican vice presidential nominee had packed their own struggles, fears and aspirations into her folksy aphorisms and don’t-mess-with-a-hockey-mom style. Any politician would be jealous of her ability to connect with her audience.
But Palin’s stumbles in televised interviews and her evasive answers on many policy questions in her debate last Thursday with her Democratic counterpart, Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. , have demonstrated just how difficult it is to be engaging, thoughtful and substantive under the sustained heat of the national spotlight.
Ironically, she is proving just how tough of an act Obama is to follow.
Simply by arguing that she is ready to be president and inviting a comparison to Obama, Republicans have suggested to many Democrats and independents that Obama is more than ready. In nearly two years on the campaign trail, the Democratic nominee has never once looked as lost as Palin did repeatedly in the weeks between her convention speech and last week’s vice presidential debate.
Conservatives inside the Capital Beltway have identified Palin’s limitations. Columnist George Will told Senate press secretaries last week that Palin is “obviously not qualified to be president,” according to a report by the liberal Huffington Post Web site. Others, like the National Review’s Kathleen Parker, sought to throw Palin under McCain’s “Straight Talk Express.”
That is not a view shared by all, or even most, Republicans. Some say that Palin remains a touchstone on the campaign trail for a newly energized party base, and they still like the Obama-Palin comparison.
Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry ’s Omaha-based 2nd District has become a surprise battleground because the state’s electoral votes are divided in part based on who wins each of the state’s three congressional districts. Palin’s performance at a Sunday night rally has Terry persuaded.
“My personal sense is it’s still a good matchup, and based upon the reaction last night, I would say the Republican base feels like it’s a good matchup. Man, the energy at her speech last night, it was more enthusiastic than the rock concerts I’ve attended,” said Terry, who is a bit of a music aficionado. He described the estimated crowd of 5,000 as “rabid, screaming Hannah Montana-like fans.”
Well, Hannah Alaska, anyway.
Terry said Palin has a record of decision-making that Obama can’t match. “To me, she’s tested,” he said. As for her struggles in interviews, most notably a series with the ever-gracious Katie Couric of CBS, Terry said, “She’ll get better at those things.”
Analysis: Palin’s Lost Luster a Gain for Obama
Georgia Republican Rep. Jack Kingston said some of his staffers have asked to take Tuesday off so they can drive more than two hours from Savannah to Jacksonville, Fla., to catch a glimpse of Palin at a rally there.
“She actually helps because she generates a lot of excitement on our side, and we’ve needed it,” Kingston said.
Palin may well boost turnout among steadfast Republicans in what is shaping up as a dismal year for the GOP, with party analysts already previewing the 2010 election-year argument that divided government is better for the public.
But there is a downside for GOP prospects as well: Palin isn’t playing well among independents and Democrats, and she appears to be helping Obama pick up those who were not yet in his camp.
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found in a survey conducted after last week’s only vice presidential debate that 42 percent of respondents view Palin as qualified to be president, up from 40 percent before the debate. Biden got 77 percent after the debate.
An Oct. 1 CBS News poll found that 52 percent of respondents believe Obama is prepared to be president. McCain scored 60 percent on the same question in that poll.
Perhaps more disturbing for McCain supporters: A Washington Post/ABC News poll taken at the end of last month showed that 55 percent of respondents viewed Obama as a “safe” choice for president, compared with 51 percent who said the same of McCain.
Campaign dynamics can change quickly, and history suggests that McCain has enough time to recover.
But in suggesting that Palin is ready to take the reins of the presidency, McCain and his surrogates appear to have inadvertently undermined their own questions about Obama’s preparedness for the job.
Comments
Unless that ticket manage to turn its (sinking) ship around, historians - as well as pundits - may well arrive at the consensus that McCain arrived 8 years too late and Palin 8 (or more!) years too early!
What disturbs me is Palin seems to be race baiting. When one of her supports shouted,"Kill him!" I was stunned. Whan a member of McCain's supporters shouted,"Terrorist!" I was shocked. Is this what McCain wants to be remembered for? A dark day in campaigning indeed.
"When one of her supports shouted,"Kill him!" I was stunned. Whan a member of McCain's supporters shouted,"Terrorist!" I was shocked" Reminds me the rally in Midle-East, e.g. Iran, Irag, e.g. .people raised their guns and shouted "death to American" ... McCain / Palin ticket, is this American want to vote for and want to see them leading American into another war .. To me, the Bush & Chenney & most GOP are "domestic terrorist" on economic and to the world .. on the Irag war .. blood & old thristy. American watched rallies in midle-east called them terrorist, please look yourself in mirror .. most of you are doing the same when shouting at McCain/Palin rally .. Kill them .. terrorist ... shame on you . You help driving this strong & beautiful (and your children's future) into a "terrorist cells" country not democrat country. Do not condemn others as terrorists when you are doing the same things here, in USA
It appears that the GOP has decided that JM will not be president for long if they have Palin running against Obama. After the latest rallies, it appears, that the GOP is bringing out the HATEMONGERS to try and scare Americans into NOT voting for Obama. Let's prove them wrong. We have the right to vote for whomever we choose and our choice is Obama. I agree with Katy, the GOP is the party of domestic TERRORISM.
I'm sorry..... but a charismatic person alone doesn't make a good president. His ideologies are so left wing that I would closely call them socialist. I'm undecided, but I don't want for this country to turn into another Venezuela..... You think I'm kidding.... compare Obama's ideology on healthcare with Chavez's. It's downright scary!! Not to mention his tax plan.
John McCain is used to force the election of Barack Obama. Barack Obama forced you to pay for Wall Street's bailout. Stop the extortion, blackmail, bribery, and division; Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, and Cynthia McKinney. "The two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy." - Carol Quigley
Is this what we have resorted to? These people who allow voters in the audience to say "Kill him" and "terrorist" without stopping them are heathens themselves. Sarah Palin's husband is a secessionist. How unAmerican and terroristic is that? One of her ministers vosws he will keep witches from her and ran a supposedly witch out of his village in Kenya; how terroristic! She has evaded paying taxes to the feds for $$ that was considered added income when she charged the state of Alaska for staying in her own home. Is this character. What kind of hypocrit is she? She may not be intelligent but she is as dangerous as Dick Cheney.
Sarah Palin has seriously compromised her credibility as a leader with her intemperate attacks on Senator Obama. There are many Obama supporters and many leaners who have doubts about aspects of Obama's policies. If Gov. Palin had expressed the policy doubts, she may have made inroads into Obama's support. Instead she is undermining her own reputation with her untruthful and wild allegations. Listening to Sarah's charges against Obama, I now feel that she is a person who would slit her grandmother's throat to win an election.
If Sarah Palin is an example of Sen. McCain's judgement, we all need to vote for Obama. She is an embarrassment to the United States on the international circuit whose members cannot understand why we would choose a wink and a flip non-responsive answer to substance. I am saddened for the Republican party if this is the best they can serve to the American people. She is the latest in a long string of mediocre choices for positions of importance within the party. Does anyone remember "Brownie, you've done a heck of a job"? The list goes on for eight long years and now this, referred to as McCain's Sancho Panza by George Will. She is better compared to George Bush, especially in the area of a lack of intellectual curiosity. The Democrats were described, negatively, as elitists but I would prefer an elitist to a mediocre, unintelligent political appointee.
Obama's tax policies are not socialist. He wants to retain Bush's tax cuts for middle-income families, and he would spur innovation by awarding small businesses that initiate a health coverage program with tax credits. Most small businesses that are in middle-class communities rake in much less than $250,000 a year, and Obama's plan would not strain them at all. It's a shame that Republicans are running out of time and ideas.
Sarah Palin's speeches are becoming downright dangerous. She leads the crowds into hate-filled attacks that could escalate into violence soon if she does not stop this. I am so glad they will not be coming to Michigan. We do not need this kind of agitation here.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: