Why This Election Will Be Close: Hushed Confessions

Last’s night speech was simply excellent.  Gov. Palin was comfortable and at ease behind the microphone, standing with poise at the podium, and speaking with clear, choice words.  She knows how to speak, she knows how to keep delivering the lines, and she know hows to drop the one-liner.  Chris Wallace, Anderson Cooper, and Wolf Blitzer all say: “a star is born.” Read more: ‘Palin provides a ‘perfect populist pitch”.  She’s a very good speaker, and she’s tough-with a smile.

What’s more, she’s got that charismatic combination of grit and grace as we’ve seen her handle this week of media mania, attention, and attack.  Though she may have not had four-decades of politics behind her, she certainly seems to know how this stuff works, and how to get along in a big room full of intimidating politicos.  She seems to be able to make choices, set direction, and stick to it, at least to hear her tell it with confidence!  Experience in politics is a good thing and on this ticket McCain has a lot of it.  On the other side, there are many politicians in Washington who all they ever do there is get more “experience!”  In other words, a lot of “experienced” politicians have come down the pike and it doesn’t mean they’re good for us or that they’ll get anything done.  Furthermore, some politicians squander decades of experience accomplishing little while another may come in, pick up the pieces, and accomplish a great deal with fewer years but more raw talent and wisdom.

And of course, she’s a woman: a small-town mother of five children, one of whom has down-syndrome, letting us know that as a pro-life person she practices what she preaches.  And she’s a true Republican conservative both fiscally and socially who started out in politics on the local PTA!  (Psst!.. she’s also a Christian.  See here.)  And I’m not going to stand back and question whether she can handle all of this (politics and family) and whether her life and style is pleasing to the elites (oh my!  doesn’t she know where kids come from? and all that garbarge), if she and McCain thinks she can, I think she can.  She packs a wollop and as a strong, family-oriented, clear-talking, Republican lady she may well be the Democratic party’s worst nightmare (oh, the feminists must hate her, she proves them so wrong).

We’ll see and time will tell.  Nevertheless history seems to be in the making.  I agree with the positions of the McCain – Palin ticket and I hope they continue in this way.  If Palin is as good as she seems to be, McCain’s chances just improved significantly, and in the end, may prove his strategy to be genius.

Other bloggers that I enjoy are saying similar things.  See John Mark Reynolds at Scriptorium Daily, 1, 2.  Peggy Noonan of WSJ has interesting thoughts on this as well.  And if you’ve not seen the speech go to CNN’s website and watch it.

So, is this a good step for McCain?  I think so.  Is this the future of the Republican party?  May well be.  What do you think?

Here are some clips from Reynolds first post after the Forum:

Obama is a fine communicator and would make a great professor, but McCain spoke and debated like a commander in chief in a country at war. Perhaps we can have the best of both! Senator Obama can return to the Senate and run again in 2032 when he will have gained McCain’s experience.

We can be sure that we cannot wait until 2032 to elect John McCain, so we better get the old hero into office now.

…

As for the event, it was better than friends had hoped and allayed all fears. This entire event was amazing. Southern California should be proud of Saddleback Church and the great job they did.

Rick Warren was steady, kept out of the way, and made sure the evening did not bog down. He managed to tone down his tendency to get a bit too civics class sincere. The questions were far better than in most professional media discussions.

Tonight John McCain become the Grand Old Man of the Grand Old Party.

Barack Obama, the first to be interviewed, did not hide his positions on abortion, the war in Iraq, the Supreme Court, and marriage, though he was somewhat hesitant. It was disturbing to hear Obama referencing the Bible on “thinking about the least of these,” and then support Roe v. Wade on the very next question (and embryonic stem-cell research)! It should be obvious on both of these issues who the “least of these” are. Infants yet in their mother’s womb and harvested embryos-both in the early stages of human development but still human-are totally without a voice unless we speak up for them; that would qualify as the “least of these.”

Even more disturbing was Obama’s statement that the question of when a baby qualifies for human rights is “above his paygrade.” This is an unbelievable statement, particularly since he also says that he is decidedly pro-choice, implying that he’s already taken a position on the question: that the pregnant mother has rights to decide whether to birth the baby in her womb, who has no right-to-life that trumps his/her mother’s right to choose. Furthermore, in a country where we believe that basic human rights are “self-evident” and “endowed by our Creator” it is absurd political sidestepping to claim to pass this question on to the “professionals” and “specialists.” Simply put, Obama, as other pro-choice advocates, does not want to be caught on camera saying what his position screams: human babies in their mother’s womb have no human rights.

On the Supreme Court, Obama tripped up considerably. He stated that he would not have nominated Clarence Thomas and it would have been enough to say so on the basis of idealogy but to say, “I don’t think that he was as strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation” is too much. Barack Obama is a young, junior Senator running for the office of President of the United States! Thomas, according to Obama, was not qualified for the bench then, but Obama is claiming to be qualified to run the executive branch of this country. Think about that for a minute.

I’ve critiqued Obama without saying too much about McCain. That’s because I think McCain got it right on the questions he was asked. At the end, it seemed quite apparent that one of these two men was certainly qualified and prepared to fill the office of the President of the United States of America and the other was not. You read and decide.

Rick Warren and the folks running Saddleback Civil Forum deserve applause for their creativity and efforts. The format was far better than a debate, avoiding all the pitfalls of a debate yet keeping all its strengths. Rick Warren’s questions were very good and meaty. He did not avoid the tough questions, and what a waste it would have been had he done so.

For all those who think that such a forum held in a church is an attack on the separation of church and state need to think again. You know there was a time in America when in many a town, there was a place called the meeting house. A congregation may had church there on Sunday and the town council met there in the middle of the week. How ridiculous to think that a large group of American citizens are wrong to invite men they will soon vote for to come and answer questions on where they stand? And how ridiculous to think that by simply asking questions this group and their pastor are forcing their thoughts on these two men seeking office? Obama and McCain accepted, appreciated the opportunity for which many of us are now grateful, and that’s all that matters.

Also, read Dr. Al Mohler on the Saddleback Civil Forum here.