A Republican Atavism
Lee on Sep 04 2008 at 3:26 am | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, History, Media
John Podhoretz thinks the Palin speech might be among the most dazzling debuts in American political history. I don’t know about that, but I do know it was the most powerful, important, and effective speech by a vice presidential candidate since Nixon’s “Checkers.” John later notes that McCain looked relieved by it all. Again, I thought of Checkers and and a smiling Eisenhower addressing the convention: “tonight I saw courage…”
The parallels are pretty striking actually. The week of acrimonious scandal, the uncertainty of the party leadership, the lack of truth to the charges, and ultimately the triumphant personal redemption through a national televised address, which transformed a very young party favorite into a powerful national voice. Interestingly, the most notable departure from this historical recreation is the conduct of McCain throughout. He cut a superior and more loyal figure than Ike did and that’s impressive.
There’s another dimension to this too. The slush fund scandal that ended in the Checkers speech was a clumsy and ultimately ineffective effort to take Nixon down hard and early. Shooting high and missing, they only strengthened their foe beyond measure. Thus Andrew Coyne’s take on the Palin speech could be exactly right for the moment:
Her critics in the media and in the opposition may regret having piled on quite so enthusiastically, and with so little heed for who they hurt — or angered. Watching the tumultuous, ecstatic reaction in the hall, I was reminded of the famous words of the Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbour: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
(Macleans via National Review)
As in 1952, it does seem we saw the beginning of a journey for a historical figure last night. Where it will lead we cannot know, but there’s good reason to believe it will end more pleasantly than Nixon’s. A crucial difference is that Sarah was able to transform what might have been a lengthy defense and self-justification exercise into pure attacking offense. Something that was quite beyond the abilities of a profoundly politically talented Richard Nixon.
Supplemental: It seems Michael Barone had the same impression: video.
2 Responses to “A Republican Atavism”
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She brought down the house as she smiled sheepishly into the cameras and read from the tele-prompter. It was a mediocre speech at best..but presented very well. Even so I still don’t know who Sarah Palin is!
There are a whole lot of interviews with her on You-tube. She’s been on quite a few news programs talking about drilling in Anwar, for example. I doubt you’ll like it.
People have known about her for a very long time and talked about her for VP for months. Do I know who she is? At least as much as I “know” who any of the other principals in this election are.
The speech was well done. I’d have reordered some sentences to, for example, put the word “victory” last instead of in the middle in order to increase the emphasis, but I’m a word nerd. Her delivery was excellent.