CMC Professor Pitney Quoted on Alaskan Governor

Professor Pitney was recently quoted in the AP as saying that Sarah Palin, a young G.O.P. governor from Alaska, might make a good running mate in 2008.

...John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist with Claremont McKenna College in California and former analyst for congressional Republicans, said Palin could be an ideal presidential running mate next year.

"What separates her from others is that at a time when Republicans have suffered from the taint of corruption, she represents clean politics," Pitney said.

"The public stereotype of Republican is a wrinkled old guy taking cash under the table," he said. "One way for Republicans to break the stereotype is with a female reformer."

Party labels seem to mean very little to Palin. Her revenue commissioner is a Democrat. Her husband, Todd, a blue-collar worker on Alaska's oil-rich North Slope, is an independent.

The mother of four is often seen bounding down the Capitol stairwell, holding a pink backpack and rushing to get her 6-year-old daughter, Piper, off to school on time — something that Pitney said could make Palin more appealing to a national audience.

This isn't the first time that Pitney has plugged Palin for G.O.P. V.P. Back in early November, he suggested that she run in National Review.

Even though Palin won't have served a full term as governor and she hails from a state with few electoral votes, Pitney may well be right. Palin's image as a mother plays well with the stay-at-home moms that most certainly will vote for Hillary come election day. But it will be too easy for the Democrats to play up her image as Vogue-modeling populist.

The G.O.P. stands for three essential, nonnegotiable tenets:

1. Human rights for the unborn.
2. National defense
3. Limited government

Governor Palin is pro-life, but is she really in favor of limited government? With the help of Democrats, she passed higher taxes on the oil industry to bring in more money for her state. Taxes on oil company profits went from 22.5% to 25% and could bring in an estimated 1.6 billion annually. But that strikes me as just a little Clinton-esque and populist. Taking profits from companies that have nowhere else to go seems more than a little unfair.

But on the economic front, just who does Ms. Palin think will end up bearing the cost for all that money in Alaska? The consumer who will pay more at the pump. Maybe voters will like Palin for taking from the oil companies. Maybe some will like those higher prices, which will encourage alternative fuels. But Governor Palin starts a dangerous precedent of Republicans shaking down the oil companies. Good Republicans slash taxes.