I'm Thrilled

I'm really excited about Sarah Pallin. I think she is going to shake this election up, as early polling is indicating. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are in town today, alas previous commitments made it impossible for me to go hear them. I hope they swing through this swing state again before the election — then, hopefully, I will catch them.

In any case, the ticket looks really, really strong. Palin has quite a reputation for major action only a few years into her political career. With ethics reform and fiscal responsibility measures gracing her CV, it seems hard not to be excited. Moreover, the fact that she is not only pro-life, but has shown how strong her commitment is by keeping her youngest child despite knowing he would suffer from Down's Syndrome, shows she can walk her talk and adds a powerfully humanizing element to a sometimes abstract debate (not that I'd suggest one's family should be turned into political pawns, but nevertheless, one's personal actions certainly provide helpful support for one's policies — if they match). Even some pro-choice analysts seem to be soft on Palin's pro-life stance because she is not someone speaking from a distance.

The McCain-Palin ticket looks like it could potentially reset the Republicans to a someone pre-neocon state, which would not make me the least bit sad. While McCain's support of Iraq obviously ties him into the neo-conservative spectrum, there can be little doubt that he is not four more years of President Bush. I like President Bush better than most, but at the same time, I think only a very small minority thinks the Bush era GOP is better than the Reagan era party.

And, of course, it is obviously exciting that whichever party wins, a happy bit of history is now going to be made this election. While I do not think one should vote for the Republican ticket because it will give the U.S. its first female vice president, or the Democratic ticket because it will give the U.S. its first African-American president, all else aside, cracking the proverbial (and — this week — popular) cracked glass ceiling would be good for all of us.