Say Anything Blog

Conservative Peggy Noonan (who, ironically enough, published a very supportive column about Sarah Palin just this morning) was caught calling Palin a gimmicky pick on an open microphone after a discussion with MSNBC analyst Chuck Todd.

Murphy: ...because I come out of a blue swing-state governor world. Angler. Whitman. Tommy Thompson. Mitt Romney. Jeb Bush. And I mean, and these guys, this is all like how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And, IT’S NOT GOING TO WORK.

Noonan: IT’S OVER.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech and do himself some good

Chuck Todd. [Unintelligible]... think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson?

Noonan: ...saw Kay this morning.

Todd: [sounds like ‘she’s not comfortable talking about it????]

Murphy: They’re ALL bummed out

Todd: Is she really the most qualified woman?

Noonan: Most qualified? NO. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives.

Todd: yeah, they went to narratives.

Murphy: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time Republicans do this, because that’s not where they live, and that’s not what they’re good at, they blow it.

Murphy: You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is “no cynicism” and this is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, “gimmicky”

Liberals are no doubt crowing in delight over this, but I think Noonan’s point is a good one worth discussing.

Picking someone because of what they are rather than who they are is something the liberals do.  I’m convinced that a big reason why Obama is the Democrats’ pick for President is because he’s a black man, and they think “first black President” is a narrative that plays well with voters.

Noonan, and clearly Republican consultant Mike Murphy, think that McCain picked Palin for the same reason.  She’s a woman, and if elected would be the first woman VP.  But are they correct?  Was Palin picked just because she’s a woman?

If that were true, and I don’t think it is, I’d be upset. Because, again, that’s a game liberals play.  But I think Palin’s record shows that she’s got more than enough qualification to be VP.  She’s dealt with budgets in Alaska.  She’s dealt with energy issues both as a Governor and as a member of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Commission.  She’s tackled ethics issues, including taking down corrupt Republicans in Alaska.

Obama, frankly, doesn’t have anything that matches in his record and he’s on top of the Democrat ticket.

So was Palin a gimmick pick?  I don’t doubt that some political strategists are cynical enough to think so, and are cynical enough to think that such things work.  But I think the reality of Palin goes far beyond that, and attempts to diminish her to nothing more than a feminine mascot for McCain’s campaign aren’t based on reality.

Update: Noonan responds:

In our off-air conversation, I got on the subject of the leaders of the Republican party assuming, now, that whatever the base of the Republican party thinks is what America thinks. I made the case that this is no longer true, that party leaders seem to me stuck in the assumptions of 1988 and 1994, the assumptions that reigned when they were young and coming up. “The first lesson they learned is the one they remember,” I said to Todd—and I’m pretty certain that is a direct quote. But, I argued, that’s over, those assumptions are yesterday, the party can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people. And when I said, “It’s over!”—and I said it more than once—that is what I was referring to. I am pretty certain that is exactly what Todd and Murphy understood I was referring to. In the truncated version of the conversation, on the Web, it appears I am saying the McCain campaign is over. I did not say it, and do not think it. In fact, at an on-the-record press symposium on the campaign on Monday, when all of those on the panel were pressed to predict who would win, I said that I didn’t know, but that we just might find “This IS a country for old men.” That is, McCain may well win. I do not think the campaign is over, I do not think this is settled, and did not suggest, back to the Todd-Murphy conversation, that “It’s over.”

However, I did say two things that I haven’t said in public, either in speaking or in my writing. One is a vulgar epithet that I wish I could blame on the mood of the moment but cannot. No one else, to my memory, swore. I just blurted. The other, more seriously, is a real criticism that I had not previously made, but only because I hadn’t thought of it. And it is connected to a thought I had this morning, Wednesday morning, and wrote to a friend. Here it is. Early this morning I saw Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and as we chatted about the McCain campaign (she thoughtfully and supportively) I looked into her eyes and thought, Why not her? Had she been vetted for the vice presidency, and how did it come about that it was the less experienced Mrs. Palin who was chosen? I didn’t ask these questions or mention them, I just thought them. Later in the morning, still pondering this, I thought of something that had happened exactly 20 years before. It was just after the 1988 Republican convention ended. I was on the plane, as a speechwriter, that took Republican presidential nominee George H.W. Bush, and the new vice presidential nominee, Dan Quayle, from New Orleans, the site of the convention, to Indiana. Sitting next to Mr. Quayle was the other senator from that state, Richard Lugar. As we chatted, I thought, “Why him and not him?” Why Mr. Quayle as the choice, and not the more experienced Mr. Lugar? I came to think, in following years, that some of the reason came down to what is now called The Narrative. The story the campaign wishes to tell about itself, and communicate to others. I don’t like the idea of The Narrative. I think it is ... a barnyard epithet. And, oddly enough, it is something that Republicans are not very good at, because it’s not where they live, it’s not what they’re about, it’s too fancy. To the extent the McCain campaign was thinking in these terms, I don’t like that either. I do like Mrs. Palin, because I like the things she espouses. And because, frankly, I met her once and liked her. I suspect, as I say further in here, that her candidacy will be either dramatically successful or a dramatically not; it won’t be something in between.