And now a rebuttal on Palin ... or not

I have no good idea of how Palin as VP will work politically. She shores up the base, which was absolutely critical, steps on the Obama speech buzz, and certainly has the potential to be seen as one of those gut instinct decisions that later looks inspired.

Or not.

She has some political baggage that could blow up in McCain's face. She may turn out to be a poor campaigner. People may not like her voice. Or resent the naughty librarian factor - the graphics of old man John next to her might not work. And we do seem to choose our presidents on such peripheral and ephemeral claptrap (and have even since the Kennedy/Nixon debate on TV - which I can remember watching).

Here's Krauthammer's opinion. Rick Brookhiser seems to have doubts while Jonah Goldberg shows some common sense (though he later seems to walk it back) and channels Begala on an important point, Brookhiser is roundly attacked by everyone, and The Designated Adult is over the moon for her, while David Frum definitely is not (and is roundly attacked by 98% of his respondents).

To quote that other great political philosopher, Chou-en-Lai, "too soon to tell."

You know, if the fate of civilization as we know it wasn't at stake this would be a lot of fun. And I just realized that I had unconsciously borrowed this post's format from Claw of the Conciliator.


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