Weighing the pluses and minuses of the McCain/Palin ticket, Rod offered a number of reasons why he thinks supporting the ticket helps move toward some important goals.  One reason he gave was this:

A real Sam’s Club Republican — a dynamic and articulate young woman — is in position to take over the GOP when McCain passes from the scene. 

This came back to me when reading a later post, in which Rod was citing Prof. Deneen’s concerns about Palin:

Personal example is a good thing, but societal structure shapes us. Show me the money – and that it’s not all going to go the oil companies, the “developers,” the big box stores, and the SUV manufacturers.

The remark about box stores stood out for me, because I had just read this account from a Wasilla resident that a commenter had pointed out to me, in which the Wasilla woman said that in her time as mayor Palin had “[t]urned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots.”  Other unflattering revelations abound in the account.  In this sense, she may very well be a “Sam’s Club Republican” in the narrowest sense of promoting the rise of box stores, but this is the same kind of “growth” agenda that the GOP has advanced for years and reflects the mentality of consumption and acquisition that Rod and Prof. Deneen have criticized so vocally.  It may be that Palin will be in a leading position in the GOP after a McCain administration (although I doubt it), but it seems very likely that the things that Rod and Prof. Deneen are hoping to find in her are not there.