Election

I was listening to Mark Levin's radio show driving home yesterday. He argued in favor of McCain by saying the main objective of conservatives had to be beating the Marxist first and then taking back the Republican party for conservatives. He acknowledged that McCain was not a conservative but insisted Obama had to be beaten first before addressing McCain's shortcomings. My reaction is that history does not support this approach. Electing a non-conservative Republican insures that the Republican party will not move in a conservative direction for many years. Imagine if Gerald Ford had beaten Jimmy Carter in 1976 (which he almost did). While I think Ford would have been a superior president to Carter, I really doubt that he would have been able to effectively deal with the stagflation of the late 1970s. In 1980, the Republicans would have been blamed for the economic mess since they would have held the presidency for the previous 12 years. It's likely a liberal Democrat, perhaps Ted Kennedy, would have been elected. Thus, it was only Carter's victory and Ford's defeat that resulted in Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980. Similarly, a Humphrey victory in 1968 may have led to an earlier Reagan presidency, perhaps in 1972 or 1976. Instead we got Richard Nixon who pursued very left-wing policies and expanded government power greatly with his wage and price controls and new agencies. Thus, I don't see much argument for McCain especially in light of his embrace in the last debate of an even greater Government takeover of the private economy.

The Weathermen

I just watched a documentary on The Weather Underground. Bill Ayers is one of the more reprehensible members of the group. Other members express regret about their use of violence but Ayers famously said (on 9/11) he thought they didn't do enough. It is quite pathetic that he played the role of a revolutionary for a decade and then when he had enough he was able to return to polite society and live a respectable life thanks to his rich influential father. However, as an attack on Barack Obama, I don't see the Ayers connection as very impressive. Obama claims that he didn't know about Ayer's past when he first met him, which could be true. I don't think I would have recognized the name until there was publicity about his comments on September 11, 2001. Even more than the attacks regarding Reverend Wright, these criticisms really are guilt by association. At least with Wright, one could point to the fact that Obama did join his church and sat in the pews for twenty years. There is no evidence that Obama ever did anything to show sympathy with the aims or methods of the Weather Underground.

Palin Survives

In last night's VP debate, Sarah Palin avoided any major catastrophe. While she often avoided answering difficult questions by switching to a subject she wanted to talk about, she didn't freeze up or say anything idiotic. I think it was a performance that saves her career and her place on the ticket but not strong enough to save the McCain-Palin campaign. The economic turmoil will doom McCain. However, she was good enough that she can maintain her support among many Republicans and social conservatives. Her performance in the Couric interviews was so bad that she was beginning to lose some of her conservative supporters (Rod Dreher, for example).