Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those
who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
-- John F. Kennedy

Monday, September 1, 2008

He fought hard for the nomination and won ...

Conservative David Frum is not going to vote for Barack Obama. What a surprise. But he is definitely not happy with McCain's choice for VP. He see's Palin as a huge risk and undeserving of being a heartbeat away from the presidency. But he has strong words for people on the right who are favorably comparing her qualifications to those of Obama:

Can we conservatives please stop kidding ourselves about Barack Obama's "qualifications"? Yes, if I had been a Democratic donor back in 2006, I'd sure worry about whether Barack Obama had what it took to be president. That was before he took on the toughest political operation in America, before he beat Bill and Hillary Clinton, before he won 18 million primary votes. Obama's nomination was not handed to him. He fought hard for it and won against the odds. "Qualifications" predict achievement. Once you have achieved, it doesn't matter what your qualifications are. Who cares whether the guy who built a big company from nothing didn't have much of a resume when he started? But if you are applying to run a big company built by somebody else, the resume matters ... The worst mistake in any fight is to under-estimate your opponent's abilities. Look what happened to the people who under-estimated Reagan. If conservatives are to have any hope in the coming weeks, we should wake up to the fact that we face in Barack Obama a formidable man, who appeals to something important and deep in the American electorate. He's not a superman, he has vulnerabilities, he can be beaten. But he won't be beaten until we who are trying to beat him understand why and how he has come so far ...


If Sarah Palin had been a candidate for president over the past year and a half, would she be in this position today? Possibly. But at least we would know a hell of a lot more about her views, her experience and her qualifications. Right now, everything we are learning (Drip, Drip, Drip) is contradicting everything we were told about her in the first 24 hours. She may be out of this race very soon.
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