Posted by
Steve Maloney on Friday, June 15, 2007 8:37:08 AM
Friday Night:
In Saturday’s column, I’m going to talk one more time about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin the “Bloggers for Palin” campaign. Sarah’s candidacy for vice president on the Republican ticket will continue to be a regular topic on this site, as well as on many others.
This Sunday – and every Sunday through the summer – I’ll be talking about the “Best of the Bloggers,” with emphasis on people who blog on Townhall. As part of my Palin efforts, I’m going through every blog here, all 4500-plus of them.
I’m finding diamonds in the rough, almost literally. So far, I’m been through approximately 300, including all those from PA (148), NJ (66), Idaho (20), and Utah (53). Why there are nearly as many bloggers from Utah as there are from New Jersey (a much more populous state) is a question I can’t answer.
How many of those 300 blogs are worth your attention? Unfortunately, fewer than 10 of them. Blogs don’t seem to follow the legendary Bell Curve, which would lead to a few excellent ones several more qualifying as “good,” and many falling in the “fair” category. In fact, the typical blog is no-longer-active. That was a surprise to me.
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In regard to Sarah Palin’s candidacy for the vice-presidential slot on the Republican ticket, all of us in the Palin movement are delighted by the number of people signing up to support her. You can find links to them on my blogroll and on Elephantman’s blogroll (at http://palinforvp.blogspot.com). Some excellent material about Sarah is appearing on various sites, including Sanity102’s and GenerationXDad’s (see links).
Please pass along (to me or to Elephantman) the link to any blog that endorses Sarah's candidacy. We'll list them on the blogrolls. As we get into the fall, we'd like to have 100 bloggers (or more) supporting Sarah. The way that will happen is for each blogger who backs Sarah to find one (or two) more allies for her. "Each one find one (more)" is the way this movement will proceed. No one is a follower; everyone is a leader.
So far, Sarah's backers include people who support one of the following: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, and Ron Paul. Supporters of any of the Republican candidates are welcome in the Palin Movement. The emphasis is on what she could bring to the eventual Republican ticket, no matter who heads it. By February 5, 2008 ("Super Tuesday"), we presumably will know the name of the Republican presidential nominee, and we want that gentleman to decide that his best possible running mate would be Gov. Sarah Palin.
Of course, this effort will have its ups and downs, but there be more of the former than of the latter. We strongly believe that at some point Sarah will in fact hold the nation’s highest offices, including the presidency. We’re asking everyone who blogs or participates in any way in the blogosphere to endorse Sarah. Her staff is aware the “draft” movement is going on, but it is taking place independent of any effort on her part. In this sense, it is one of the purest “draft” movements ever to occur.
Before Independence Day, we will have the names of many additional bloggers who support Sarah. Stay tuned.
At some point, Sarah will have to make her own decisions about which steps to take in actively seeking the nomination, and we wish her – and our country – only the best. Please encourage your friends and Internet contacts to participate in this undertaking! This is a nation “of, by, and for the people” – and YOU are the people.
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Why Sarah? A Short -- and Sad -- Trip Down the GOP's Vice Presidential Memory Lane
I’d like to take a little different approach than I planned. One commenter asked GenXDad, a strong Palin supporter, why Sarah wasn’t running for President. He indicated that it’s unusual for someone to run for vice-president, which has a small degree of truth to it.
As a first-term Governor, Sarah is not ready – yet – for the “Ultimate Prime Time,” a full-fledged run for the presidency. From all evidence, however, she's a very fast-learner and shows every sign of being ready to assume the presidency – if necessary – by Inauguration Day in 2009.
It’s critically important that Republicans play an active role in determining their vice-presidential candidate. In the past, some very curious choices have been made for vice-president, and they haven’t advanced the Party. In fact, they’ve done damage – sometimes great damage – to the cause of Republicans.
Go way back to 1964. Barry Goldwater chose as his running mate one William Miller, a congressman from Western New York. No one denies that Miller was a good husband and father, but he added basically nothing to the ticket. He was a “just-say-no” Republican, mainly noted for his opposition to what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His opposition, coupled with Goldwater’s, to that proposed legislation was an important factor in turning Black voters away from their historic allegiance to the Party of Lincoln.
What about the next vice-presidential choice? That would be Richard M. Nixon’s naming of Spiro T. Agnew. A popular figure with the Republican “base” of that era, Agnew established a dubious “first.” Just as Watergate became a national scandal, Agnew resigned in the face of bribery allegations. Thus, as Nixon clung by his fingernails to the Presidency, he had no vice-president (until he appointed Gerald R. Ford).
Ford then named Nelson Rockefeller, a good man but someone who was an interim appointment. In the 1976 election, Ford ran with Robert Dole, a war hero and a good Senator, but a terrible campaigner at the national level. He had a habit of saying things like: “People know where good ole Bob Dole stands.” If they did know, apparently they weren’t impressed.
In 1992, George W. Bush – not exactly showing political acumen – named young Indiana Senator Danforth Quayle as his V-P running mate. Quayle was a national joke, “Mr. Potato Head,” and never became a serious candidate for the Presidency.
As for Dole’s running mate, even as a political junkie, I couldn't remember who it was! In fact, the answer to this political trivia question is: economics wonk Jack Kemp. As was foreseeable, he and Dole lost badly to Bill Clinton. If that campaign had a point, no one could figure out what it was.
In 2000 and 2004, George W. Bush ran with Dick Cheney. For a good part of Bush’s first-term V-P Cheney spent much of his time “in an unknown location.” Some people think it might have been if he’s spent the remainder of the Bush presidency in said “location.” (Note: I'm part of the world's smallest fraternity, people who like Dick Cheney.)
You’re getting my point: Republicans have done an abominable job in choosing vice-presidential running mates. It’s hard to imagine any Party doing a worse job over more than a generation. It also makes you wonder how we won a majority of the presidencies during the time.
The vice-presidency should be a road to the presidency. For Republicans since 1964, it’s been anything but that. More often, as with Miller, Agnew, Kemp, and Quayle, it’s been a path to oblivion.
Can we do better than Sarah Palin? I don’t believe we can. We could name better-known candidates, true, but we couldn’t name one with her reputation for honesty, charisma, and popular appeal.
Leaving the choice of a running mate entirely in the Presidential nominee’s hands hasn’t worked well at all. It has damaged the growth of the Party and its reputation among voters.
Those of us who back the Alaska Governor so strongly think it’s time to go in a dramatically different direction. That direction leads directly to Sarah Palin. “Now she belongs to America.”