Even ahead of China, Iran is the most difficult problem we have in foreign policy right now. As John McCain said in his speech last night, the ayatollahs are the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world (starting with their wholly-owned subsidiary, Hamas), and they’re very hard to get at; for reasons of terrain alone, a traditional military response such as an invasion would be extremely unwise. Add in other considerations, and the advisability of such an approach only decreases. And yet, contra Joe Biden, we can’t just let them do whatever they feel like doing. So what do we do?One option might be what the old KGB called mokrie dela—”wet work,” such as assassinations and clandestine subversion—but that’s probably not the best way to go; not only is it morally problematic, but historically, we aren’t very good at it. This does, however, raise the thought that a more subversive approach to the Iranian government, especially in light of rising domestic disaffection in that country, is probably the one to take; what brute force can’t accomplish, geopolitical judo might. And as Emanuele Ottolenghi points out, a recent IMF report on the Iranian economy shows us how to do that, or at least how to begin: do everything possible, from increasing domestic production to pressure on OPEC, to bring the price of crude oil back down below $85 a barrel. Not only would that be good for the American economy, it would throw the Iranian economy into crisis. The current high price of oil has propped up the current regime there and funded its quest for WMDs and its adventures in international terrorism; knocking the ayatollahs’ feet out from under them, economically speaking, would at the very least cripple their international ambitions, and quite possibly start an earthquake that would bring them down altogether.
Author Archives: Rob Harrison
Memo to the movement: be careful
As thrilled as I was to see Gov. Sarah Palin capture the hearts of (most of) the Republican Party, there are a couple ironies here of which we need to be wary: concerns that we ourselves have raised about Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are in danger of becoming true of us as well. The lesser is the one that I’ve seen noted, that after invoking celebrity culture to critique Sen. Obama and Obamamania, the McCain campaign has most certainly, if not fully intentionally, created a celebrity of its own, and Palinmania is very real. We need to be careful not to get too caught up in it.
More serious, though, is the messianic aura and language of the Obama campaign, something for which the McCain campaign also jabbed him in its ad “The One.” I wrote about this a couple months ago thusly:
I don’t usually link to the same blog back-to-back, but there’s another post of Doug Hagler’s I want to point you to, one he titled “Idolatry American style: Barak Obama”; obviously we have very different views of the Republican Party (though even most Republican voters aren’t very happy with the Republican Party at the moment), but as I’ve written before, I think the idolatrous tendencies in American politics are a real problem, and I agree with Doug (and others) that they’re particularly pronounced around Sen. Obama. (I don’t think they’re the senator’s fault—rest assured, I’m not accusing him of having any sort of delusions in that regard—but I do think he’s yielded to the temptation to take advantage of them, and I really wish he hadn’t.)
Somehow or other, we need a countercampaign to bring the people of this country around to a critically important truth: Politics will not save us. We keep getting sucked in to the idea that if we can just win this vote or elect this candidate, that will take care of our problems, and it just isn’t going to happen; Doug’s dead on when he writes, “Nothing messianic is coming from either party any time soon.” Nor any time later, either. Politics will not save us, government will not save us, no institution is going to save us; only God can save us, and he builds his people from the bottom up, one life at a time. If we want to work to address our problems in a way that will actually make a difference, it certainly helps to have a government (and other institutions likewise) that facilitates our efforts rather than making matters worse, but in the end, all we can do is follow God’s example. One life at a time, one family at a time, one small group of people at a time. From the bottom up. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
The danger of all the excitement over Gov. Palin, glad though I am to see it, is that we could all too easily lose sight of this; we could all too easily turn her into our own secular messiah, with “salvation” defined as a McCain victory in November. For this, too, we must remember that politics will not save us, and government will not save us—a McCain government no less, and no more, than an Obama government. Vote for McCain/Palin, yes, work for them, yes, as I am able; but remembering always that that is, at best, the lesser hope. Remember always that they too are only human, and flawed.
Update: for another, and quite interesting, perspective on this, check out this post from ShrinkWrapped. HT: The Anchoress)
The “I Am Sarah Palin” vote is mobilizing
I’ve been talking up Sarah Palin for two and a half months now—long enough to have been ahead of the curve, if not truly an early adopter—laying out a long list of reasons why I believed she was the best pick as John McCain’s running mate; I never imagined I’d thought of them all, but I did think I’d hit all the high points.As it turns out, I was wrong. Blame it on the Y chromosome: I’m a guy, I miss things. I think I’m a reasonably attentive husband to my wife—we talk a lot, about a lot of different matters and issues, and believe it or not, I think I manage to listen about as often as I speak—but whatever she might tell me about her own experience, it’s still hers, not mine. I’ve never lived through junior high or high school as a girl (though my junior-high years were quite bad enough as they were, thanks), never been a daughter, never been a woman; clearly, from what I see and hear, it makes a difference, but I cannot know that difference from the inside. Even in our marriage, though we live life together and make decisions together, though I listen and seek to understand how it is for her each day and how she sees everything, I can only know her experience from the outside; I don’t feel it, I feel my own.Which means that when I started talking about the reasons why Sen. McCain should pick Gov. Palin, I missed one: identification. I missed the reaction of the women who are saying, “I am Sarah Palin. Her story is my story”—and there are enough that CafePress has put out a T-shirt. I missed the reaction and perspective of women like Annette Budd and Hope Reynolds and Dr. Melissa Clouthier (a bit of profanity there, just so you know) and, yes, my own wife and the women with whom she meets for playdates for our children. Like I said, I’m a guy—I didn’t know, didn’t see it coming. I’m learning.There’s a particular subset to this which may be especially important: Republican women. For one thing, they are the most likely to identify with Gov. Palin; as Will Wilkinson put it,
What they liked is that they saw a feminine yet powerful conservative Christian mother—someone they understand, someone they would like to have as a friend, someone they are or would like to be. What they liked was the thrill of such direct cultural identification, of being on that stage and commanding attention and respect. I do not doubt that conservative Christian moms all over the country were brought to tears by the power of this. There are a lot of conservative Christian moms.
And for the other, as Michelle Malkin notes, women who vote Republican have become wearily familiar with what she calls “the four stages of conservative female abuse”; but with the GOP putting one of their own front and center, and the media coming down on her in a fury like a Denali avalanche, it sounds like many of them have had it. Tom DeLay went so far as to say, “The media has done more for John McCain in the last two days than he’s done for himself in the last year and a half. Trashing her is waking up the sleeping giant, and the sleeping giant is Republican women.” I believed Gov. Palin would energize the GOP base in a way in which no one else could; it never occurred to me that the MSM would collude with her to help her do it. But that, if inadvertently, may be just what they’ve managed to do.One more crazy turn in this craziest of all political seasons.
Chain-link post
I really and truly don’t want this blog to turn into “all Palin, all the time”—I have a number of other things I want to post on as well, and I do intend to get to them soon—but I also have a few more comments I want to make about Palin and the political situation as well. To start off with, though—how big of an effect did her speech have? Big enough that it’s impossible to keep on top of the response. So, in lieu of trying, I’ll simply point you to a couple places where you can find a lot of good material.
- The Anchoress has good links posts here, here, and here.
- RealClearPolitics, of course.
- The running blogs at Commentary, “Contentions,” and National Review, “The Corner.”
- Hugh Hewitt doesn’t have a lot up, but what he has up is prime.
- And of course, my fellow (and much more important) Palinite, Beldar.
VINDICATION
John McCain has been vindicated; all of us who pushed for this pick have been vindicated; Gov. Sarah Palin hit a game-changing halfcourt shot with her speech, the Obama campaign is speechless, and “America has a new sweetheart.” Whether the media knew what a remarkable woman and politician Sen. McCain had found, he did, and so did we. To the slime peddlers and rumormongers, in case you didn’t get the memo, you aren’t going to be able to break this woman, so you might as well stop trying. All you’ve managed to do is hurt yourselves.The text of Gov. Palin’s speech is here; video is below.
Media strategy
For your consideration, footage of a media strategy session on how to deal with Governor Sarah Palin now that she’s been selected as the Republican VP nominee:
(Do you realize how hard it is to talk with your tongue in your cheek?)
Dick Morris hits it over the light tower
Some claim [John McCain] made a mistake in choosing the Alaska governor. My bet is the reverse—that she’ll turn out to be a big win. . . .Understand: Palin is under attack because she was such a good choice. Remember the Democrats’ central charge on McCain: “He’s a Bush clone.” By choosing Palin, something George Bush would never have done, McCain showed how really different he is. . . .Sarah Palin reinforces the most important aspect of the McCain candidacy: Despite 30 years in Washington, he’s an outsider and a dedicated foe of corruption and conflict of interest in government. He’s the one who stands up against pork, earmarks, and lobbyists and backs campaign-finance reform. Palin brings the same kind of credentials to the ticket. When she speaks tonight and emphasizes her record of reform and her commitment to bring ethical standards to Washington, she’ll strike a deeply resonant chord throughout the nation. None of the “scandal” reflects ill on Sarah herself. They’re the kind of family issues that bedevil many American women. That the media accords such prominence to them shows how fundamentally differently we treat women and men in politics. . . .Palin has an extensive public record—with more executive experience than Barack Obama or Joe Biden (or McCain, for that matter). She should be judged on her record, same as a man. If she is, she’ll survive these charges in great style. And then the backlash will set in. Tens of millions of women have had to confront life experiences akin to Palin’s. After years of electing plasticized creations of political consultants, we have the chance to vote for a real person with real peoples’ problems. In standing by her, McCain speaks volumes about his attitude toward women and his empathy for those who face family troubles. His loyalty illustrates not just his decency, but his sensitivity and good sense. All of which illustrates the most fundamental point of this convention: That John McCain is no George W. Bush.
Talking sense
I haven’t given a nod to Tyler Dawn in a while, which is remiss of me, because she puts up some really good stuff on her blog, Following Him Alone. I appreciated her thoughtful comment on the furor over Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, which captures some things I was thinking and feeling, but better than I’d been able to do; and even more, I appreciated her post “Rebuke without Relationship,” which captures something important that had never consciously occurred to me, but which makes intuitive sense. I commend them both to you.
OK, now this is just frightening
We’ve now heard from former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele that someone on the Democratic side of the political fence has stolen Sarah Palin’s social security number.Identity theft as political tactic? I’d ask how much lower we could get in this country, but I don’t want to give the universe ideas.
By contrast, the MSM should be ashamed of themselves
So, Barack Obama laid down the law to the media, forcefully, absolutely correctly and in no uncertain terms: “I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible: I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as governor, or her potential performance as a VP. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.” Are they listening? No. It’s not an unreasonable request, that they treat Gov. Palin and her family the same way they treated Al Gore and his son, or John Edwards and his wife and mistress; but as the Anchoress points out here, here, and here, they just can’t bring themselves to follow it. Forget feminism—we have a bunch of folks here who aren’t afraid to drag out every sexist trope in the book if it will help them beat up on Gov. Palin; forget fairness and logical consistency; forget Sen. Obama, even. Whatever crowbar they can find to hand, they clearly intend to use.But there is a cost to this behavior. For one thing, it makes Sen. Obama’s message of change, and of bringing a new spirit to American politics, ring ever more hollow with every slander; the more people feel this campaign is ugly and hateful, the more they’re going to pull back—and given the nature of Sen. Obama’s appeal and campaign, predicated on raising turnout and getting out new voters, that’s going to hurt him more than it does his opponent. For another, this kind of behavior feeds distrust and dislike of the media, and further erodes their credibility. For a third, it only works in the short term if they can in fact destroy Sarah Palin; if she refuses to crack, keeps her cool, rises above the mud, and handles it all with grace and strength, she’ll come out of it looking—well, positively presidential. Tonight is her first chance to go over the heads of the media who have abused her to the American people; if she does her usual thing, the whole attack will start to backfire on the media in a big way. If Gov. Palin can get through this, no one’s going to wonder what Joe Biden will do to her, because there’s no way anything he could do could top what’s already been done.And fourth, all of this makes Sen. Obama look very, very bad. We rightly applauded him for showing leadership in response to the Palin attacks—but leadership doesn’t exist without followership, and nobody’s following him.
This is the test of Barack Obama’s lifetime. It’s not whether or not he can be President. He’s tied in the polls, so the possibility is is clearly there. However, the question of him actually being able to lead people (to be a leader) remains to be seen. He’s never had to lead. Now he does, and those who are his strongest supporters . . . are not following his instructions on even a simple, logical, common sense, clearly honorable request: leave Bristol alone.If they can’t do that, then how can he lead them to war in Iraq for another 16+months min., or Iran, or Pakistan, or Afghanistan, or elsewhere?
This is not, by the way, a criticism of Sen. Obama, who’s doing what he can do; it is, rather, a serious question about those who purport to be his followers. I’ve wondered before whether the leaders of his party are actually following him, or just using him to get what they want. Others have wondered whether he’s actually running the campaign machine, or if he’s really it’s creation. To see his leadership ignored in this way just reinforces the idea that it’s the latter, not the former, and that makes me worry—for our country, and for Sen. Obama.Update: when one of his own senior volunteers isn’t following his lead either, that only increases the worry. Either that or it suggests that he’s saying one thing and doing another. Whichever it is, it isn’t good.