pH Reading — Sunday, August 31, 2008

By Patrick Henry 

 

Who is Prepared to be President? Nobody
RealClearPolitics · Richard Reeves
Is Barack Obama prepared to be president? No. Neither is John McCain. I have written about 12 pounds of books on the presidency over the past 22 years, three long studies that focused on the day-to-day work of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. This is the most important thing I learned in doing that, a paragraph at the end of the introduction to “President Kennedy: Profile of Power”: “John F. Kennedy was one of only 42 men who truly knew what it is like to be president. He was not prepared for it, but I doubt that anyone ever was or ever will be. The job is sui generis. The presidency is an act of faith.”…

pH: Amen.

Let Palin Be Palin: Why the left is scared to death of McCain’s running mate.
The Weekly Standard · William Kristol
A spectre is haunting the liberal elites of New York and Washington–the spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism, rising out of the American countryside, free of the taint (fair or unfair) of the Bush administration and the recent Republican Congress, able to invigorate a McCain administration and to govern beyond it. That spectre has a name–Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska chosen by John McCain on Friday to be his running mate. There she is: a working woman who’s a proud wife and mother; a traditionalist in important matters who’s broken through all kinds of barriers; a reformer who’s a Republican; a challenger of a corrupt good-old-boy establishment who’s a conservative; a successful woman whose life is unapologetically grounded in religious belief; a lady who’s a leader…

pH: Nice insights from Kristol. Palin came out of the blocks very strong. At first glance, she seemed energetic, appealing, and ready for the challenge. If she continues this pace to the finish line, she will be a nightmare for the Democrats.

A Brilliant Trap Makes Dems The Male Chauvinists
New York Post · Kirsten Powers
She’s just a beauty queen. She’s another Dan Quayle. And ironically, the biggest criticism of Sarah Palin, John McCain’s veep choice, is she has no experience. Funny, coming from the Barack Obama camp. Following McCain’s announcement of Palin - the first female to be put on a GOP ticket for the White House, and only the second in US history - the Obama campaign skipped the niceties and blasted her as the “former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience.” She’s also a governor of Alaska (my home state), the first woman in that office and the youngest elected in state history. She has an 80-plus percent approval rating. She has turned the state upside down with her reformist zeal and has made enemies of the Republican establishment…

pH: Powers is spot on: The Dems’ opening salvo was extremely weak. Begala’s Friday performance on CNN was particularly bad. I can’t imagine many women could have watched Begala without being insulted. They will have to do better if they hope to undermine Palin… and not appear sexist.

Cirque De Obama
IBD Editorial Board
Barack Obama says we can’t afford four more years like the last eight. What, exactly, is bad about winning a war on terror, keeping Americans alive and free, and letting us keep more of what we earn? We weren’t expecting Sen. Obama to thank President Bush for keeping America and its citizens safe from terrorist attack since 9/11, or for winning the war in Iraq and bringing democracy to the heart of the Middle East…

Changes in Politics
RealClearPolitics · Thomas Sowell
One of the few political cliches that makes sense is that “In politics, overnight is a lifetime.” Less than a year ago, the big question was whether Rudolph Giuliani could beat Hillary Clinton in this year’s presidential election. Less than two months ago, Barack Obama had a huge lead over John McCain in the polls. Less than a week ago, the smart money was saying that Mitt Romney would be McCain’s choice for vice president…

Obama’s Checklist Of Traditional Democratic Programs
Investor’s Business Daily · David Broder
The Democrats had themselves a successful convention — at the price of appearing quite conventional. The delegates left here happy and enthused, believing that the divisive nomination fight was finally behind them. But their star, Barack Obama, on the climactic night of the conclave, gave an acceptance speech that was no match for the keynote address he delivered at the 2004 convention in Boston. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, introducing his colleague again here, said that first one “changed politics in America.” That is hardly an exaggeration. People were talking about the 2004 speech — with its powerful evocation of a national unity far beyond any partisan differences — for weeks. I long ago lost count of the number of Obama volunteers who said they had signed up to support him after watching that address…

Palin? Perfect
IBD Editorial Board
John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is brilliant. Her individualism matches McCain’s. But it’s the new strengths she brings to the ticket that make the team formidable. To say it was a bold pick is putting it mildly. Palin, after all, isn’t well-known outside Alaska. But McCain is maverick-bold, and this masterstroke looks like a game-changer for Republicans…

Playing his cards brilliantly
The Australian · Greg Sheridan
Barack Obama is a fraud. But he is a very familiar kind of fraud: a politician pretending to be something he’s not. He is not the post-partisan, post-ideological seeker of a new politics and leader of a broad social movement to redeem the soul of America. Rather, he is a brilliantly gifted, traditional, self-seeking politician who has sought for a long time to get to the top. He is also a traditional left-liberal, obsessed, at least in his public life, with race. He has built the momentum of his campaign on the most dubious basis that can exist in a democracy for garnering political support, racial identity…

pH: Fantastic column. Sheridan ruthlessly dissects Obama’s campaign and the state of the election.

Crowning Obama
IBD Editorial Board
The biggest surprise of the Democratic convention? The spectacle of journalists applauding Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. OK, maybe not the biggest surprise. But certainly one of the biggest disgraces. Andy Barr reported on The Hill’s blog that “several members of the media were seen cheering and clapping for” Obama as he accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday…