The 3 A.M. Phone Call!

October 5, 2008
The 3 A.M. Phone Call

Sarah Palin could be President if McCain was elected and didn't survive his term.

Would you trust this woman to have her finger on the button? Or to take the 3 a..m. phone call?

If the situation is dire enough that she has to decide whether or not to push the button (at 3 a.m. of course :-); do we, as a nation, trust her judgment in such a situation?

The punditocracy and innumerable comments responding to online news and blogs (although it is difficult to tell the difference between the two) scream "No"! Indeed that fear (fear of "the other guy" and what he will do is always a prime political strategy) is one of the primary weapons wielded at Sarah.

That is largely the rap on her: She is ill prepared to deal with crisis and would be only a heartbeat away from the Presidency, should she and McCain win. The politically correct reason for this is because she is "inexperienced".

Bull moose droppings.

There is no one who is "ready" for a 3 a.m. phone call requiring them to instantly decide whether to push a button that launches a nuclear counter-attack.

To the extent that there is anyone in the U.S. who believes that they are, that person is (hopefully sadly) deluded. If indeed they are running for an office that could conceivably put them in that position, then they are dangerously deluded.

The only time when such a decision may need to be made would be if a world leader with a nuclear arsenal went nuts. (No, I don’t mean Kim Jong-il - he’s already nuts.) But North Korea is never going to manage to launch nuclear missiles at the mainland U.S. They might manage to get one to Alaska, but no one cares about that frozen wasteland anyway :-) That is no longer true of course. The pipeline, shipping and refinery facilities have now painted a large bulls-eye on Alaska. But I still doubt that North Korea is going to launch one at us.

Putin may want to bring the glories of the USSR back to Russia. And he may be a pain. But he isn’t going to launch nukes.

So it is in many ways a nonsensical question. But it seems to get asked a lot, so let’s answer it.

Whose finger would you rather have on the launch button? Palin or Obama?

It is true that it might work out to be an excellent time to "dither". But that isn't a good basic strategy :-) Obama has a history of not being able to make up his mind. His overwhelming voting record shows that he is strongly in favor of "present". The man is not a decision maker. He is a committee person!

Have you ever seen anything run well, or put together well by a committee? [Ok. Me too. But only a few times. And those were times when one member of the committee was a powerhouse who made decisions and got things done and dragged the rest of the committee along with them. That does not describe Obama!]

Indeed, it isn’t just the mythical 3 a.m. phone call. Presidents need to be able to make decisions. Obama’s cup says "The buck stops, well, somewhere around this room unless we task it out". The man couldn’t make a decision if his bladder depended on it!

Palin on the other hand was a governor, not a senator. She made decisions constantly. They weren’t all perfect, but she was having a magnificent run when tapped to try to support McCain as he hobbled across the finish line.

She makes decisions. She is not bashful about it. She is quite good at surrounding herself with excellent, intelligent people to bounce things off of. But, ultimately ... it is her (not some hidden little garden Rove or toe suckee Dick Morris) who makes the real decision. And by the time she makes it ... she has internalized it. It is Her Decision.

So, back to the hypothetical. We have Barack stumbling around in his silk bathrobe ranting about how this wasn’t supposed to happen. He’s got a 5 star General on one line. On the other line, the Russian ambassador (who announced the nukes had been launched and were on the way and, by the way, did we have any room for him in Cheyenne Mountain or anywhere ... he’d be glad to tell us anything we might want to know). And we have a man with a suit and a suitcase which has been somewhat ludicrously handcuffed to his wrist.

Joe Biden has been called but he is out of touch at the moment so Barack can’t ask him what to do. He contemplates calling Bill Clinton, but is too much of a politician to believe he could ever live that down. And besides, he’s running out of time. If that ambassador is right (and we haven’t been able to confirm yet), we need to launch what defenses we have within minutes and launch a retaliatory strike to cripple their second wave (should it be coming) before they can get them in launch position.

I fully believe that Obama would panic in such situation and be effectively useless. He would dither and not make a decision, thereby effectively making one. [Whining voice: "Can't we call a working group together to hammer out a proposed solution?"] If the Ambassador was telling the truth .... we not only get the full brunt of the first salvo with no defense, but we get a second salvo that will at least manage to get launched even though, hopefully by then, we’ll be able to offer some defense. The man would freeze. I’d be scared to death if he was the one with his finger on the button.

Palin on the other hand ... I have complete confidence in. This is a woman who sneaks through the woods in the early morning mist in hopes of sighting a legal bull moose. Our season is short. Generally only a month or two in the fall depending on where you are in the state, so the pressure is intense. We have also adopted a somewhat bizarre theory for most of our hunts ... the bull’s horns must measure 50 inches across or have three brow tines.

Alternatively, you can take a young, tastier and much more tender moose so long as he doesn’t have more than a fork in his antlers. It makes for some very difficult decisions. Especially when you are cold, wet from the morning dew (or pouring rain!), peering out through the dusk before the morning fog has burned off and watching the bull move his head around branches and thick shrubs while eating. If you shoot an illegal moose; the penalties can be severe. Pass up a legal moose and your family may go a little hungry and you’ll be furious at yourself later.

Palin is used to this. She spots the moose, instantly and silently chambering a round and noiselessly slipping the safety off. Then she shoulders the rifle so she can see through the scope (while her hunting partner is using the binoculars). She has the patience to wait it out until the moose gives her a clean look. She has the nerve to fire when she is convinced. And she has the nerve to un-chamber the shell and put the gun back on safety and move on if she decides it is not legal. That is the kind of experience I want to be answering that mythical telephone call and staring at the button in the unlocked suitcase.

I would sleep a lot better at night were Sarah in charge than if "Oh my what should I do" Obama held the reins.