This post has been updated.
Reading today's column, you might think David Brooks wasn't anywhere near a television or a computer yesterday, if not for a reference to Governor Palin's daugher's pregnancy. The column reads like he wrote it last Friday, when everyone was still buying the spin about Palin being a budget hawk type who is a careful steward of taxpayer dollars. Brooks ends up saying he doesn't think picking Palin was the best idea because Palin and McCain might be too busy being mavericks to govern, but it's hard to understand why he would cast her as some kind of moral crusader.
McCain was meeting a woman who risked her career taking on the corrupt Republican establishment in her own state, who twice defeated the oil companies, who made mortal enemies of the two people McCain has always held up as the carriers of the pork-barrel disease: Young and Stevens.
If by "mortal enemies" you mean she ran Ted Stevens' 527 until 2005, and as Mayor of Wasillia contributed to "Pork-Barrell disease" by hiring a firm connected to both "carriers" to secure nearly 30 million dollars in earmarks for a town with a population of 6700. (Even with the millions in federal taxpayer money, Palin managed to rack up 20 million bucks in long term debt.) Sure, Palin became a critic of both Stevens and Young after they became posterboys for corruption, but that's kind of like John McCain criticizing George Bush after voting with him 95 percent of the time.
Her central claim, that she "fought" the Bridge to Nowhere, is a lie. And since becoming Governor, Palin has sent her supposed mortal enemy Ted Stevens requests for 200 million dollars in earmarks for the state.
My understanding is that securing federal money for their states is something governors do. So in short, it's pretty embarrassing when David Brooks says things like this:
Many people are conditioned by their life experiences to see this choice of a running mate through the prism of identity politics, but that's the wrong frame. Sarah Barracuda was picked because she lit up every pattern in McCain's brain, because she seems so much like himself.
That's not a character reference at this point, but probably an accurate description. McCain rails against lobbyists while letting them run his campaign, he touts moderate positions on issues he has since renounced, and in general expects his personal qualities to shield him from criticism. Still, it's hard to think of a more ill-fitting description for McCain after the past few days than Brooks' evaluation of him as a "crusader for virtue against the forces of selfishness," given that he didn't even think someone who might be running the country someday was worth a thorough vetting. The method used to pick Palin -- and the lack of impulse control it reveals -- calls into question McCain's very campaign slogan, "Putting Country First."
Not this time.
--A. Serwer
