Wake That Base Up!

The evangelicals like Palin. So, McCain decided to follow the Rove approach after all and focus on the base....

The appeal of Obama has been notably strong in the Northern Plains, the Northern Rockies, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska, and is key to winning those states. Obama requires these places in order to break the solid Republican South, and to win.

No one on the Internet I've seen so far today seems to have mentioned that Palin, originally from Sandpoint, ID (far from that den of sin, Boise), and Governor of Alaska, is an excellent choice to blunt Obama's appeal in these northwestern locales.

I still think it's a disastrous choice all the way around, a genuine fiasco, worse than Quayle 1988 and even worse than Eagleton 1972, but there are reasons for the choice:

Evangelicals, who are practically giddy at Sen. John McCain's vice presidential pick, have spent the day heaping praise on Gov. Sarah Palin.

David Brody, news analyst and blogger for the Christian Broadcast Network, points out that "while Palin may not be known much nationally, conservative evangelical leaders know all about her and think the world of her. They like her. She has been involved and active with many Christian organizations. They like what she stands for and [is] a woman to boot? Are you kidding me? John McCain just changed this race dramatically. Now we will see whether the evangelical base comes storming to his side. The bet here is that it is very likely."

Reaction from the leaders of the religious right, who had been lukewarm to McCain's nomination, poured in all day.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said on Brody's blog:

"Sarah Palin clearly addresses the issues so many conservatives are concerned about. It balances out the ticket. She's also really a checkmate for the Democratic Party because folks who were looking to make history for Barack Obama can make history by voting for John McCain in seeing the first woman elected to the vice-presidency. It was a very strategic move by John McCain."

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, had urged McCain to pick Palin. In a press release today he said:

"Gov. Palin is a vice-presidential selection which shows that John McCain at the age of 72 today is still able to think outside the box. Gov. Palin will delight the Republican base. She is pro-life. It appears that Sen. [Barack] Obama played it safe in picking Sen. Biden and Sen. McCain made the bold and unconventional choice in picking Governor Palin."

...Janice Shaw Crouse of the conservative Christian group Concerned Women for America said in a press release:

"It is particularly significant that there is a conservative woman nominated for the nation's second highest office. For years the feminist movement has acknowledged for leadership only those women who embrace a radical agenda. How refreshing that now we have a woman who reflects the values of mainstream American women. Sarah Palin is pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-family. She is a woman who is balancing the personal and professional in admirable ways. She is an outstanding woman who will be an excellent role model for the nation's young people. Sarah Palin is chief among equals with American professional women; she brings the kind of balance that characterizes the high-achieving women of today. She will bring to the forefront of our cultural conversations an intelligent, realistic, well-grounded woman's perspective. Take that feminists -- here is a woman of accomplishment who brings a fresh face to traditional values and models the type of woman most girls want to become."