Roy Maynard: Early Returns

EDITOR'S NOTE: This week's Early Returns column was co-authored by Editorial Page Editor Roy Maynard and Religion Editor Patrick Butler.

Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee was dynamite. The question now is whether it will prove politically explosive, as more information emerges about her family, faith and foibles.

But at the end of the day -- the day of Nov. 4, to be specific -- Sarah Palin will be shown to be something America loves: a fighter, both politically and spiritually.

Those who see McCain's choice of Gov. Palin as a crass attempt to win over disappointed supporters of Hillary Clinton are missing the true strategic significance of the choice.

It's not about disaffected Democrats. It's about the disaffected Republicans.

John McCain's Achilles' heel in November could well be his lack of enthusiastic support among the conservative base of the Republican Party.

"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family in January 2007.

He reiterated this sentiment in February 2008: "I cannot and I will not vote for Sen. John McCain as a matter of conscience� I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative and, in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are."

Recently, however, Dobson has started to warm to McCain -- although "tepid" might be the best word for Dobson's support.

Until Friday, that is, when McCain announced his pick for vice president is a pro-life, suburban mom who has battled corruption and pork-barrel spending in her tenure as Alaska's governor.

"Sen. McCain's selection of Sarah Palin is an outstanding choice that should be extremely reassuring to the conservative base of his party," Dobson said. "She is a strong executive who hates corruption and puts principle above politics. After floating the names of Tom Ridge and Sen. Joe Lieberman in recent weeks -- selections that would have created consternation among pro-family Republicans -- Sen. McCain has chosen a solid conservative who has a reputation for espousing common sense."

In recent elections, the role of social conservatives has been downplayed. Indeed, the issue of abortion has just about fallen off the national radar, except as a yardstick for measuring a candidate's adherence to either party's platform.

But social conservatives matter -- they're the grassroots organizers and block-walkers and sign-planters of the Republican Party. They help their friends register to vote. They stand outside polling places on election day.

McCain has never had a comfortable relationship with this important group.

Sarah Palin didn't just shore up this support. She positively resurrected it Wednesday night with her fiery speech. Suddenly, the grassroots are greener than they've been in years.

But political pundits can't seem to stop asking how the revelation that Gov. Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant will affect the nominee's standing with evangelicals, and with the nation at large.

The answer is that Christians and the country will take her into their hearts.

How many parents have felt the pain of their own prodigal son -- or daughter -- taking ill-advised steps and hitting the wall of life, only to come home to gather themselves up and take another look at life?

Plenty -- particularly in Smith County, which has historically had high rates of teenage pregnancy. The Northeast Texas Public Health District reports that the rates are down recently, but all too many families face this challenge.

But like the prodigal's loving parent, Christians are to receive their children with open arms, even after the worst choices of their lives are made.

If one test of Christian morality in the "faith-walk" of Sarah and Todd Palin was to do just that -- months before she would be asked to share a national political ticket, and their decision made international news -- then she appeared to have met the pain directly and absorbed it into her life. This, rather than fleeing the pain because it got in her career path or was inconvenient.

A pregnant unwed daughter was just one challenge. Mrs. Palin also recently bore a Down syndrome child. Talk about stress upon stress. But mind-boggling and stressful situations face every single parent in Smith County each month as rents are due, medicines must be obtained, food purchased and children clothed.

How did she do it? If nothing else, Sarah Palin will be mentioned as some kind of paradigm in Smith County pulpits in years to come for parents struggling with similar issues. No family of faith, anywhere, knows how it might respond under similar circumstances until it experiences them.

Having an attitude of love in the face of stressful situations is the challenge. If Mrs. Palin goes to Washington, an average, imperfect American family will be the reference point to millions of grandparents, unwed mothers, teenagers and parents across the nation and world.

For all-encompassing guidance, Christians often quote First Corinthians 13: "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have faith so that I could remove all mountains and have not love, I am nothing."

To paraphrase; "If I become governor of a state, bust anti-trust deals, return unjust taxes to those who toil, but have not love, I am nothing. If I become vice president of the most powerful nation on earth; if I break a glass ceiling for millions of women worldwide, but do not embrace my own children -- who struggle with situations through no choice of their own, or from choices they've made -- then I am nothing."

True Christianity is not to run from painful family situations -- or deny they exist -- but embrace them in the context of one's faith. The primary hoped-for result is the grinding of one's character into familial compassion and love.

No one ever said that battle would be easy. But Sarah Palin appears to be a fighter, rising to the challenge.

Roy Maynard
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