Palin's Independence

A more hard-bitten Conservative blog reaction:

John McCain’s never seemed to me to merit his “maverick” moniker, but the Palin pick is clear evidence of an independent spirit. He met the women only in February, barely knows her, yet was clearly sufficiently smitten to disregard all professional party insider advice and the heavy neocon lobbying to choose Joe Lieberman, Bill Kristol’s pick to ensure Americans will be fighting Mideast wars in perpetuity. Watching McCain camp followers react to the choice is a bit like seeing the middle aged heirs of a very rich man feign pleasure when they learn Daddy has decided, very late in life, to marry a woman he just recently met, who happens to be forty years his junior.

If you don't think that is accurate, then look no further than "PowerLine" today:

...there are two streams of thought in the Republican party about how America should relate to the world, and one of them is the Buchanan/Chuck Hagel approach. And there are three main possibilities when it comes to Palin: (1) she agrees with what is now the mainstream, Bush/McCain approach, (2) she agrees with the Buchanan/Hagel approach, and (3) she hasn't thought much about it.

My guess is that the answer lies somewhere between (1) and (3). But I'd rather be able to examine a track record than guess...

PowerLine is always ready to Fight Wars--preferably in the Middle East. Somehow, they conclude that "mainstream" = "fight wars."

They're wrong, of course. If the Surge hadn't worked as well as it did, the polls would be radically different than they are today.