Sunday, September 21, 2008
Opinion
The Palin Doctrine
The neocon talent scouts spotted Sarah Palin, their political Eliza Doolittle, back in the summer of '07...
By Arianna Huffington
The London Daily Telegraph has reported how the neocon talent scouts spotted Sarah Palin, their political Eliza Doolittle, back in the summer of '07: "Sources in the McCain camp, the Republican Party and Washington think tanks say Mrs. Palin was identified as a potential future leader of the neoconservative cause in June 2007. That was when the annual summer cruise organized by the right-of-centre Weekly Standard magazine docked in Juneau, the Alaskan state capital, and the pundits on board took tea with Governor Palin."
Not surprisingly, Palin's biggest fan is Bill Kristol, who describes her as the "specter of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism" that "is haunting the liberal elites." Among her other Henry Higginses is neo-neocon Joe Lieberman, who is reportedly helping prep Palin for the big ball—her debate with Joe Biden.
She's already passed her first test with flying colors: Last week, she told a group of Iraq-bound soldiers that they were going to "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."
Of course, the neocons know they already have an ally at the top of the GOP ticket. McCain may have been a reformer on campaign finance, but when it comes to foreign policy, he has always been solidly in the neocon club. He loves to talk about how he wanted to fire Donald Rumsfeld months before Bush did. But he doesn't talk a lot about how, in the days immediately after 9/11, he was part of the neocon crowd itching to get into Iraq.
Six years later, demonstrating how little he's learned from the debacle in Iraq, McCain hired Randy Scheunemann, a neocon darling who helped form the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq in 2002, as his campaign's chief foreign policy advisor.
And now, according to the Daily Telegraph, Scheunemann is briefing Sarah Palin.
On the outside, Palin's exponentially more likable and talented at connecting with people than Dick Cheney ever was. But on the inside, once she graduates from the neocon finishing school, she'll be a complete and total Dick. Cheney. With lipstick.
SP