Palin's Next Move Should Be to Hire Ed Rollins

Alaska State Governor and Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin brings western conservatism back into the GOP at a time when it seemed that the Reagan Revolution might have been over. While journalists and bloggers are making much ado about her ability to galvanize the social conservative "base", they are likely to miss that western conservatives, especially Alaskan conservatives, have credibility with that Republican base that seems to be defecting from the GOP in droves: the economic libertarians.

Make no mistake about the power of this contingent. They aren´t as well-recognized as a wing of the GOP, but only because they have yet to walk away from an election en masse as they seem to be doing in 2008. Having authored McCain-Feingold, endorsed the Democrat´s environmental plans, and promised more ad hoc reactions to economic problems, McCain represents the biggest overt deviation from the GOP´s limited-government base since…Eisenhower? Suffice it to say that another McCain on the ticket could not possibly bring them to the polls.

Palin could be a signal that the GOP has come full circle to its Goldwater-Reagan roots. Because of her newcomer status, she is not wedded to McCain´s legislative history. She can respectfully disagree with him on economic liberty issues where, today, he would be likely to disagree with himself. She is already known for advocating an individual-liberties interpretation of the Alaska State Constitution. She has proven to be anti-pork, anti-regulation, and, at the same time, anti-corporatist. Having come from a state with a high proportion of homeschoolers, she could attack issues where the Democrats have no credible answer, like school choice programs. She could attack the judiciary´s liberal and hugely unpopular positions in cases like Kelo v. City of New London. Most importantly, having broken the largest triumvirate in American politics (Ted Stevens-Frank Murkowski-Don Young) and having called for reform before it was popular, she could genuinely propose that the Bush-era in GOP politics is over.

Of course, none of this will happen if she stays attached to the McCain machine. To his campaign, briefing the ticket-mate in on federal affairs will mean harmonizing her ideology with his. They will give her room to advocate her own pro-life and energy positions, but they will hardly have the resources to craft an image independent of McCain´s. Yet, that is precisely what is needed to validate McCain's regularly-questioned choice: evidence that Palin is not a sycophant, but an independent ideological force.

Enter political super-consultant, Ed Rollins. Rollins was the campaign director behind Reagan´s landslide 1984 win of 49 states. He can craft her frontier story with elegance for the western and southern states. He has the experience and connections to establish Palin and secure for her different endorsements than McCain could get. More importantly, he is one of the few Bush-circle outsiders in the GOP with enough clout to make his case to the Bush-circle insiders.

Rollins can do even more after the election. In his book, Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, he chronicles what happened when the western conservatives arrived in Washington DC in 1980. Then, the DC Republicans made plays to put a buffer between Reagan and his own California ideologues and thereby co-opt Reagan´s movement. "We cut the fuse on our own revolution" he said about the choice to put George H.W. Bush on the Reagan ticket. Rollins, like no other living Republican, is in the unique position to guard against this regrettable phenomenon happening again if Palin goes to the White House.

Palin would do well to snatch up the remnants of the Reagan Revolution. Rollins and whoever he picks to help run his team are worth more than one David Axelrod and who-knows-how-many Jim Carvilles. Rollins has already written articles for CNN to praise McCain´s choice in Sarah Palin. And when Rollins praises a candidate, it usually means he´s figured out a way for them to win.