HOW PICKING PALIN REALLY CHANGED THE GAME

Up until now, almost all of the commentary on Senator John McCain's choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate has focused on the fact that she is a woman.

From the Democrat Party and the left-liberal commentariat, that focus is of course not surprising. They see politics as nothing but a demographic contest in which the candidates vie for various group identities because of how they style their own stories. The Democrats add up the totals of the various piles into which their misguided multiculturalism divides us (despite their talk of "unity" and transcending ideological division), and think that lining up those pieces will win them the game. They are post-modern groupists, using group identities in a Gramscian attack to demolish the individual.

But that's not why Senator McCain chose Governor Palin.

The evidence for all to see is the reaction of the Republican base.

With this choice, Senator McCain has invigorated the base and transformed it from a lukewarm bulwark into an enthusiastic vanguard. Almost 5 million dollars were contributed to the campaign on Friday, much of it, judging from comments posted on the internet, by first-time donors who are not committed to a McCain victory in November.

And that's not because he put a woman on the ticket. It's because, with all due respect, that he put a Republican on the ticket.

Governor Palin is a living embodiment of the small-town family values that made my country great and that will keep it great if they are allowed to flourish.

To point out that she was elected Mayor of a small Alaskan town is not to reveal a defect: it is to highlight a highly favorable attribute.

A couple of examples. (There are many more, but the coming weeks will provide ample opportunities to discuss them.)

She is a religious believer, and her honest expressions of her love for her family are spontaneous, unrehearsed, and believable. She is living the choice of being pro-life.

Far from portraying our heroic soldiers, sailors, and Marines as infantile victims, the way the Democrats do, she respects and honors her eldest son's personal choice to enlist in the United States Army, and recognizes that his upcoming tour of duty in Iraq is vital to the defense of America and of freedom.

Unlike most Democrat politicians, far from having to pose in awkward and embarassing photo-ops in military gear that looks ridiculous, handling firearms they are trying to ban, she is a nearly life-long hunter who looks great in camouflage fatigues, and can handle a high-powered rifle with aplomb. Not only is she a Life Member of the N.R.A., she is Governor of one of the two states that have the most sensible laws regulating their citizens' concealed-carry of self-defense firearms.

She is a reformer who has run against and taken action against corrupt politicians in her own party, in her own state.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, with Alaska separated from the lower 48 by Canada, and from Russia by only a few miles of the Bering Strait, she has had as Alaska's Governor more direct foreign policy concern and experience than Senator Biden: all he has ever done with respect to foreign policy is jawbone about it in the Senate.

And yes, she has more real governmental executive experience than Senator Obama, Senator Biden, and Senator Mccain - combined.

The fact that she is a woman may be the least of what she brings to the McCain-Palin Campaign.

And the fact that that's all the left-liberal pundits (and more than a few Republican pundits!) can talk about, shows you just how far ahead of the Obama team Senator McCain really is. It shows you that he is operating well inside his opponent's OODA-Loop.

And for those who worry about Senator McCain's age, it shows you that he is definitely at the top his game.

He is at the top of anybody's game.

Thus, in part, the enthusiasm of the base. And that's why this choice changed the game.

[Lots more here.]