[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Palin Factor energizes Pro-Life Base, Race Over?

[PFLI PharmAid Center]

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 3 Sept 2008 AD

*
*OneNewsNow.com

The Palin factor *

By Matt Friedeman

9/2/2008  

This race is over.

Well, OK, not quite over. But I have always thought that the 
presidential sweepstakes of 2008 was McCain's race to lose. Now, because 
of the addition of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the ticket as running 
mate, I am more convinced than ever that Barack Obama's inaugural ball 
isn't happening anytime soon.

Could McCain lose? Sure -- anything can happen in the next few months; 
but if he keeps speaking truth to power in juxtaposition to Barack Obama 
whistling into the wind (reference the Saddleback Forum) and continues 
making excellent campaign choices (see appointment of campaign guru 
Steve Schmidt and selection of Palin), then Obama ought to be worried. 
Very worried.

With Palin, the conservative base is energized, reaching into their 
pocketbooks and signing up as volunteers. No other running mate choice 
could have even come close to invigorating the base as this one has. In 
retrospect, there may well have been wisdom in trotting out the 
vice-presidential prospects of Joseph Lieberman, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, 
and Mitt Romney. When Palin was finally announced conservatives were 
giddy, once they had time to wipe the sweat off their brow. It could 
have been worse, much worse; and, really, as everybody thinks back on 
it, how could it have been better?

With Palin, the political Left is rattled. Exhibit A is their 
questioning, with the mainstream media in tow, whether Governor Palin's 
son Trig is really her baby, or her grandbaby. They were so 
embarrassingly running headlong into their reportage on the story that 
Obama had to make a statement trying to call them off. Pity. There is 
nothing quite so revelatory as watching the Left foam at the mouth, 
become utterly unnerved at a situation they can do nothing about, and 
start saying the darndest things. Things, for instance, that leave the 
American public exceedingly peeved. It has now been announced that the 
eldest Palin daughter is pregnant out of wedlock; that the Left is still 
snickering will only infuriate the more decent American middle all the more.

With Palin, there has been some perceived starch applied to the normally 
conservative backbone of Senator McCain. With her, he is all the 
conservative he ever was, but more. She brings social and economic 
conservative credentials that are at least as principled as his and 
perhaps more consistent. More than one signal has come from Dr. James 
Dobson's Focus on the Family headquarters that, yes, he is voting for 
her and that yes, Mr. McCain is looking a bit more like one of the guys 
that can be counted on for future bold and right-leaning decisions.

With Palin, readiness, as an issue, is both accentuated and diffused. 
Bring up whether she is ready to be a heartbeat away from the 
presidency, and you have to explain why "community developer" is more 
impressive than small business owner, city councilwoman, small town 
mayor, and a fly-in-your-face challenger of Republican corruption and 
good-ol'-boyism. Bring it up, and you have to ask why the only person of 
the four in the presidential sweepstakes with executive experience of a 
state half the geographical size of the continental U.S. is less 
important than a man who has served in the Senate 150 days and did 
basically nothing of real worth before he began running for president.

With Palin, you have someone who has opportunity to appeal to women on 
the levels of accomplishment, style, and grace; and to men, who surely 
must be impressed that here is a gal who can bag, gut, and eat a moose. 
The latter adds a degree of real life toughness, of course, but it only 
complements sharp political elbows that she has not been shy about 
throwing around when principle is at stake in her party and at her 
statehouse.

With Palin, you have someone with a wide range of experience that most 
Americans will be able to appreciate one way or another. Tenacious high 
school basketball player, leading her teams in prayer; beauty pageant 
scholarship winner; All-American family with a husband who apparently 
admires and loves her as much as she admires and loves him; slowly 
climbing the ladder from the small town city council to the highest 
office in state-wide politics. She has friends, she has enemies, she has 
supporters, and she has detractors.

But mostly, she's got game. And she just made McCain, a man who was 
headed to winning this election, a much improved candidate.

This columnist has often predicted that when a woman rose to the level 
of president or vice-president in this country, it would not be a 
liberal in the Geraldine Ferraro-Hillary Clinton mode; no, it would be a 
classy, conservative woman in the mode of Margaret Thatcher.

Governor Sarah Palin looks to be that woman.

/
Matt Friedeman (mfriedeman at wbs.edu) is a professor at Wesley Biblical 
Seminary. He can be heard at AFRTalk from 5:00-6:00 p.m. (Central) and 
InTheFight.com.
/


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