McCain's advice for Sarah Palin

A man named McCain has some advice for Sarah Palin. No, not the McCain that was her former running mate, but journalist/blogger Stacy McCain, who writes for The American Spectator and his blog The Other McCain.

One piece of Stacy's advice seems to us to be a no-brainer -- Ignore Andrew Sullivan:

Dr. Andrew Sullivan, M.D., OB-GYN, excecutive director of research at the Atlantic Memorial Center for Republican Obstetric Investigation, accuses Palin of being obsessed with him.

[...]

Having ridden his lunatic hobby-horse to self-indulgent glory -- the rodeo hero of Palin-haters everywhere -- now Sully goes for the championship buckle by issuing a ridiculous "challenge" to Palin. (Note the Charles Johnson-like gadfly approach: Sullivan arrogates to himself the authority to decide what subjects Sarah Palin must address.)

What should Palin do about Sully? For now, do nothing. Or, rather, don't do much.

[...]

There's a right way and a wrong way to deal with the annoyances of a gadfly. The important thing is to maintain the strategic initiative: You decide when, where and how to respond.

Perhaps the former governor should simply send Sully Levi's cell phone number. Since her there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-almost-son-in-law rather hatefully turned down her invitation to come to Thanksgiving dinner with the family, Ricky Hollywood and Doc Sully could get together on Turkey Day and share some dressing.

The Other McCain's other advice -- is that Sarah Palin should seek out Dick Armey and listen seriously to the FreedomWorks Chairman's advice.

Armey recently caused a bit of a stir when he criticized the former governor for being a "cheerleader" for the TEA Party movement at a time when it is looking for a "captain." Armey also commented that Mrs. Palin doesn't appear to him, at least, to be doing a very effective job of rehabilitating her image.

Actually, we believe that the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is taking steps to address both of Armey's two major criticisms of her. Sarah Palin's appearances on The Oprah Show and her many-segmented interview with ABC's Barbara Walters are in our opinion designed to do much more than just sell a lot of books. She intends to show women who aren't part of movement conservatism that she isn't the ogress that the Left and the media have painted her to appear to be. Moderate and independent women are a key segment of voters and precisely the demographic with which Mrs. Palin fared worst in 2008 election exit polling. She doesn't need to make Palinistas out of these women, and indeed that would be an impossible task. She only needs to soften her image with them. There's plenty of time to take the next step, which will be to show them that she understands the issues which she has been talking about on her Facebook Notes page, in op-eds she has written and will continue to write for such media outlets as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and in stump speeches she will deliver for congressional candidates who will seek and garner her support.

Sarah Palin has also moved to address Armey's other concern by saying "yes" to the chairman's own TEA party movement. She has accepted an invitation to keynote the first TEA Party national convention, which will take place in Nashville in February. This seems to us to be an ideal way to begin the transition from cheering on the sidelines to joining Armey's army and fighting with them on the field of battle. From there, time will tell if she will seek out and earn her captain's bars.

Can she win over Armey? We wouldn't count her out. Not all of what the chairman says about her is critique. He has acknowledged that Palin is probably a person of greater ability and possessing of more sense than what she's been given credit for. He has also praised her for being a self-made woman and for her proven ability to draw crowds. Again, time will tell.

Stacy also recommends that Sarah Palin not pass up opportunities to appear at some smaller-town rallies and call some local radio talk show hosts. We doubt that either of these tasks would be a problem for The Arctic Fox. She certainly did plenty of small-town venues on the campaign trail in 2008 and seemed to really enjoy that part, at least, of the race. She also has a history of calling local talk shows, which she did before the campaign. Her Team McCain handlers prevented her from making a large number of such calls, but she did manage to sneak a few in when they weren't looking.

We think that in time Sarah Palin will show women who are swing voters, the TEA party troops and even Dick Armey that she has the right stuff. Heck, she'll most probably even let Stacy have the credit for taking his good advice, too.

- JP