Sarah Palin is exciting and appealing. But what kind of executive is she? None of us have even the remotest idea. We don't know whether she takes advice from a wide circle or a narrow one, whether she tends to decide quickly or slowly, whether her budgets are realistic, whether she is calm or excitable in a crisis. We have no idea whether she is decisive or vacillating, prompt or procrastinating, curious or incurious. These things matter enormously in a president.
He has a good observation here but this is what I think he's missing about what the conservative base sees in Palin.
First, when you are grounded in principle, decisions are actually quite easy. Reagan was effective because he had a belief system he actually believed in. As a result, he was able to attract, recruit and delegate authority to people who bought into his belief system. He never needed to micromanage his presidency and no one cared.
Reagan's team was enrolled in his vision and they were able to execute. You don't need to sit around and create a management "style" when you're committed to a larger purpose. People get it and advise and counsel accordingly.
Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers is a total result of a politician incorporating political calculus in front of principle. It was a disaster.
Second, in Palin's case, if she is truly a conservative, conservatives will pick up the baton and run with it when it's needed.
For instance, how does a moderate like McCain rally his "base" for support on a tax cut when that same "base" sense that he'll sell them out on immigration reform? Using the word base is actually a misnomer since there is no "base" for moderates. Every issue becomes an advocacy play.
So once again, management style becomes important when you're evaluating a candidate who has no core principles.
Third, without saying one thing in a speech, conservatives can already see what a government looks like through Palin's eyes more than they ever will be able to do with the other three bozos in this race.
Who were the other people available with this quality? Newt Gingrich is the only one who comes to mind and he's unelectable.
In my mind, the other available candidates here were variations of McCain (Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, etc.). Just how do conservatives get any love there?
These conservatives are willing to risk the details of a management style to share in a conservative vision. This is especially true when the republican "brand" has been so bastardized it's hardly recogizable to anyone, much less conservatives.
Frum is probably correct in that conservatives may have jumped the gun in their unconditional love for Palin. But how do undecideds get enrolled in a republican candidate when conservatives can't?
2 comments:
David Frum is proof we don't do a good enough job guarding our northern border.
Go Sarah
He makes some good points. I just don't agree.
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