Reading The Corner yesterday proved, at least to me, to be a bit surreal. The fervor greeting the Palin pick from so many bordered on the hysterical. Particularly substanceless were the reactions from the readers, who displayed little to no knowledge of Palin save what she would do for McCain's electoral prospects. (One reader likes that she doesn't convert words like "chairman" to the gender-neutral "chairperson." Another: "She had more executive experience than Obama and Biden put together when she was still mayor!" Whoever you are, please learn something about politics. And Alaska. And what mayors do.)
So it was nice to see some people at NR react, at last, a bit more sensibly. David Frum, who led the charge on the right against Harriet Miers, observes, "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?" Someone should quote that in an ad. And Shannen Coffin goes to town, calling McCain's choice "troubling," saying that it shows the candidate is "desperate" and "one arrogant SOB," and observing that McCain "made a purely political play without regard for the governance concerns." All of those things are true.
Take it for what it's worth, but here's my theory on all this: Yesterday morning, the right was spooked. The VP speculation was already causing them anxiety, but on Thursday night, they saw the other party's nominee give a performance and generate the sort of enthusiasm that theirs never could. Eighty thousand people came to see it, 38 million people watched it on TV, and the speech itself was flawless. The truth is, if Palin had been seriously floated before yesterday, the right would've done what it did to Romney, Lieberman and the rest of McCain's sad field of contenders -- pick apart her flaws and talk about how terrible she would be for a variety of reasons. But they didn't have that opportunity, and on Friday morning, they needed something to be enthusiastic about. Seen that way, it's not all that surprising that they're reacting so warmly to Palin. Desperation will do that to you.
