Marketplace of Ideas Blog

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

John McCain certainly can’t be accused of making the safe, uninspiring choice as Barack Obama did. (I predict a sharp jump in the sales of this book.)

The choice McCain’s making is to focus on “reform,” as opposed to the Obama camp’s “change” mantra. The Anchorage Daily News describes her as “a first-term governor known for being a maverick who’s willing to challenge her own party, a key trait that McCain hopes will help him attract independent voters. She’s perceived as an ethics crusader and reformer within a state Republican Party that’s been rocked by scandal, credentials that also enhance McCain's similar image.”

Palin is a first-term governor (who defeated an incumbent Republican in 2006), and yet she has more executive experience than McCain, Obama and Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden combined. Having the governor of a major oil-producing state on the ticket is a reinforcement of a winning issue for Republicans against Democrats. Palin’s lack of foreign policy experience is not a big issue for a vice president (which is why Biden’s alleged foreign policy experience is overrated), although it is an issue for a potential future president. (However, Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama is.)

She does have other qualities important for a potential future president, based on this Weekly Standard description of her:

In the roughly three years since she quit as the state’s chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the “body count” of Palin's rivals. “The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah,” says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes [Alaska GOP chair Randy] Ruedrich, [former Alaska attorney general Gregg] Renkes, [her gubernatorial predecessor Frank] Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called “Voice of the Times,” which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.

Economic conservatives, particularly CNBC.com’s Larry Kudlow, will be pleased with whom Kudlow describes as a “supply-side, drill-drill-drill-ethics reformer who has worked hard to change the Ted Stevens culture-of-corruption problem in Alaska.” (Kudlow’s interviews with Palin can be read here and here.) She also appears to have the proper perspective on balancing economic and environmental concerns. As mayor of Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage, she cut property taxes by 60 percent, and early in her term as governor she vetoed 13 percent of the state’s capital budget.

Social conservatives, who have been historically less than enthused with McCain, are excited because of Palin’s anti-abortion rights credentials. (The youngest of her five children has Down syndrome; she knew this before he was born, and yet chose not to have an abortion.) The fact that her oldest son is a soldier, as are McCain’s two youngest sons, should quiet the stupid “chickenhawk” tripe of the left. Described here as “an edgy conservative who could help get those vital crossover and independent votes,” she reportedly has the highest approval ratings of any U.S. governor.

The more I think about this choice, the more I like it. (If Obama wins, is there any chance Palin could move to Wisconsin and run for governor?)