Well, damn.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/12/politics/main5153575.shtml

Okay, so just when I thought the Republican Party’s biggest problem was about to go away… I was a victim of my own wishful thinking.

It’s worth pausing here to explain in better detail my feelings regarding Governor Sarah Palin.

In a strictly personal/political point-of-view sense, I have no problems with her. I likely agree with her around 85% of the time politically, and I think that she has a relatively good ability to rally both the Republican base and the “everyman” small-town independent voter. Good for her. However, even with all this, I desperately want her to disappear from the national stage. And the sooner, the better. Here are the two big reasons:

1) Perception is everything. Sarah Palin may, in fact, be capable of great things. But as far as the media, the late-night comedians, and the segment of the general public that still depends on NBC as an honest news source are concerned; Sarah Palin is George W. Bush 2.0. That’s bad. Really bad. As much as I respect and hold a favorable opinion of Bush 43, I’m also smart enough to know that much of America is not on board with that. And if the Republican Party appears to be led by an army of plainspoken, small-town values, big-government conservatives (henceforth known as The W Army), then we are officially dead as a party. The good conservatives and capable Republicans that actually make up 99% of the party will be a nonissue because the prevailing face of Republicanism will be distasteful to the American public at large.

2) Palin is a loose cannon. Unpredictability is dangerous, just ask Vice President Biden’s press secretary. While there was a time that I would have thought that the honesty and shoot-from-the-hip bluntness that hallmarked both of the 2008 Vice Presidential candidates would have been beautiful for the party’s leadership, it is the wrong thing for us right now. Much like perception above, the issue here is marketing. Let’s play a little game: pretend that the Democratic Party is Pepsi and the Republican Party is Coca-Cola. We are in the middle of the 1980s, right now, where Pepsi sales are up and we are trying to figure out how to get back some profit margins. The temptation is to create New Coke—i.e. recreate the Republican Party into something totally new, abandoning much of what made us the party of Reagan, Goldwater, Nixon, Bob Taft, Coolidge, and Lincoln. But we must remember that New Coke was a colossal failure, as evidenced by the resurgence of Coke sales with Coca-Cola Classic’s triumphant return. It’s not that people are opposed to our party’s belief systems; we merely failed to sell it over the past six years or so. It was a marketing issue. Governor Palin represents a lateral move from Bush-era marketing. Those things that we love about Sarah Palin are largely the same things that we loved about George W. Bush circa 1999-2000: small-town appeal, simplicity, honesty, straightforwardness, etc. But we need to sell our message in the inner cities, in black and Hispanic communities, on college campuses, in bookstores, and most importantly on television and the internet. Sarah Palin may be a fantastic woman, but she is completely the wrong face for Republicans and conservatism in general.

I believe that Republicans are beginning to come to this conclusion about Palin, as well. The party subconsciously knows that everything that made us like her as Senator McCain’s running mate would cause her to slip a noose around the party as a leader. This is likely why she is even doing the bipartisan shtick regarding her new political committee; she knows that Republicans may very soon develop the tendency to avoid her like the bubonic plague.

The one and only thing that might have saved Palin from harsh judgment regarding resignation was an explanation for why. Why did she resign? Was it merely to evade the corruption charges that were beginning to swarm? She would have needed to make it look like a sort of self-sacrifice, as it was for the resignation of President Nixon. Nixon saw that the Watergate mess was distracting America from functioning properly, so his resignation has the historical flavor of almost falling on a sword. Palin could have used to take notes from the video below. Fortunately for the Republican Party, Palin doesn’t have Nixon’s savvy.

Wow. THAT was a debate. I think I enjoyed that debate more than any exchange between politicians in a very long time. Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin were very much equally matched. I have to commend them both. I took 6 ¼ pages of notes before 9:10 PM central time (a little over an hour into the debate) before I had to stop. My hand was too tired.

I’ll start with Sen. Biden’s strengths. He is infinitely stronger in a debate than Sen. Obama. Unlike the ticket’s top, Biden has the benefit of specifics and strong points. Where Obama regurgitates talking points, Biden can emphasize specific beliefs and particular points to highlight what his views for action in 2009 forward include.

Biden did, amusingly, look at Palin with almost admiration while she answered, specifically in the early parts of the debate. Biden came off as all business. He was direct, strong, and had logic to back up his positions. Even while I disagreed with him on a great many things, I understood and respect where he came from. He connected to me, a staunch Republican, on that level.

Palin’s strengths were two-fold. One: she made no gaffes. At all. She was factually prepared, honest, and didn’t fumble anything. Two: she was human. The woman who wowed America at the RNC came back in full force tonight. She spoke directly to the American people. She came off as Biden’s antithesis: folksy, often funny, and dare I say cute. She managed to achieve a balance that Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro never could: she was strong, intelligent, and feminine at the same time. Unlike many women in politics, she was unafraid to be wholly a woman and wholly a leader. I applaud that.

Weaknesses are harder to come by. Neither candidate really fouled anything up at a totally noticeable level. The biggest criticism I have goes to Palin: early on, she wanted to keep answering the energy question over and over. Biden was almost three questions ahead of her at that point, and that came close to hurting her. Fortunately, it caused no lasting damage, and I, for one, was over it one question later. Biden had more problems with actual facts, such as his previous statements on coal power; but a casual observer would likely think that Biden did fine.

I will do a follow-up piece to this one on fact-checking specifics. But here, I want to focus on the big picture. While I thought that John McCain won the first Presidential debate—albeit by a slim margin—and articulated that point in my school’s newspaper, I have to say, in all honesty and fairness, that Joe Biden came out just a hair ahead tonight.

Don’t misunderstand me. I love Governor Palin, and I think she did absolutely excellent tonight. But Biden had a more professional air, which lends itself to perceived credibility. What I’ve felt about Biden for a very long time is that he’s a remarkably liberal person who breaks all the liberal rules of presentation. He comes off like many conservatives do; more concerned with facts and his own logic than the emotion and “bleeding-heart” elements that usually drive liberals. Obviously, Biden did make factual errors in his performance, but he nevertheless had the aura that can usually only be controlled by conservative thought.

Palin’s personality and conviction won her some friends tonight, and it reminded me why I like her. But her answers lacked depth, which unfortunately drew contrast from Biden’s experience and argumentative brawn.

Congratulations to Joe Biden on his very, very, very narrow victory tonight. And congratulations to Sarah Palin for blowing your first National debate out of the water. Both candidates gave a stellar, fast-paced, and outright entertaining performance tonight. I know most of the pundits are against me tonight, but these are my immediate impressions.

UPDATE: The follow-up piece mentioned above has been cancelled. I feel that the issue had been covered ad-nauseum, and that most rational-minded Americans will agree that Biden won on presentation/appearance of knowledge, and that Palin won on actual facts. Biden made, I believe 14 factual errors to Palin's 6 or 7. Our gal won there, but the bar should have been higher.

            Congratulations ­­­­to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Even though I pulled strongly for Senator McCain to pick former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as his running mate, I feel confident that McCain made the right choice. Palin is an intelligent, capable, conservative woman; she will be excellent as the next Vice President of the United States.

            Already, however, I have been hearing Liberals try to attack her “inexperience,” or they attack the fact that she’s a woman, or they attack her age. How progressive. As usual, the Left likes to claim the moral high ground, but then proves that they don’t deserve it.

            We’ll start with the “issue” of her gender. Liberal critics have claimed that Senator McCain is merely trying to snatch up the disenfranchised Hillary vote. While I’m sure that this was a factor in McCain’s decision, it was likely a small one. It’s more important that Governor Palin has done great work in her state and has advocated strongly against issues such as abortion.

I’ve had to listen to so-called “feminists” gripe all day. “How stupid does McCain thin we are?” they ask, “he thinks that women are so stupid that they’ll just vote for the woman.” It is safe to say that John McCain dos not feel this way. Neither do I, for that matter, but let’s be realistic. There were many Hillary supporters whose entire basis for their support was “I think its time for a woman.” Just like Senator Obama has secured 90 percent or more of the black vote. Now try to tell me that there’s no racial component involved, either.

Attacking Governor Palin’s age makes no sense at all. She is merely two years younger than Senator Obama, so age is absolutely not a factor in this. If the Left tries to attack Palin’s age, they are simply highlighting the age of the man at the top of their ticket. If the Liberal critics are smart—and that’s a big “if”—they’ll keep their mouths shut on this one. Meanwhile, let’s not forget that Richard Nixon became Vice President at age 39, and he executed the office admirably, both in the foreign relations arena, as shown in the Khrushchev debate, and as a substitute chief executive, during Eisenhower’s health issues.

And finally they tout Governor Palin’s “inexperience.” She has been Governor of Alaska for two years. Senator Obama has been in congress for three and a half years, and he spent about two of those years campaigning for President. Remind me again who has more experience. Moreover, Governor Palin is the only one of the four people running for executive office with any executive experience at all. She’s safe there.

I’ve looked over her record, I’ve listened to her acceptance speech, and I’m incredibly comfortable with her. I wish Governor Palin all the best for the campaign and the future. And I offer my congratulations to John McCain. With your first executive decision, Senator McCain, you’ve done extremely well.