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LoomisBoy

The personal journal of technology journalist and conference speaker Randall S. Newton.

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Sarah Palin is Ronald Reagan 2.0

In naming Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for vice-president, John McCain has introduced America to Ronald Reagan 2.0.

Whether that is good news or bad depends on the perspective you bring to politics. But the more I look, the stronger the comparison becomes. Conservative, but compassionate. A pragmatic politician, not an ideologue. A natural for TV. Articulate and passionate. A former union member.

With Sarah Palin on the ticket, disaffected social conservatives who are not comfortable with John McCain have a new reason to get energized about this race. Remember, it was the strong turnout of the so-called "Christian Right" in Ohio and a few other key states that gave the victory in 2004 to George Bush.

The media elites and the national intelligentia will have a field day trying to rip apart Sarah Palin in the next few weeks. They did the same thing to Ronald Reagan.

I know a lot of people who still on the fence regarding Obama vs. McCain -- I am one of them. Looking at the second name on the ballot, the Democrats now have a older white man who twice made an early exit from presidential primaries, and who has become a major player in perpetuating the status quo in Washington. The GOP counters with a young articulate passionate woman with executive experience in government and has a track record of busting up the old boy networks and cleaning up the resulting mess.

Tim Egan, the NY Times columnist who understand the Pacific Northwest (he writes from Seattle, Alaska's commercial capital), advises "underestimate her at your peril." I couldn't agree more.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Being from Arizona, I have a lot of personal perspective on McCain, from his early days as a carpetbagger to his rise as the successor to Goldwater, to his disgrace in the Keating scandal.

He's a man of great intelligence, and impenetrable ego.

Sadly, the analogy with Reagan may be too close to the truth. McCain has started having "senior moments" that he never would have had years ago.

6:33 PM  

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