A Suprising Choice
John McCain’s choice for running mate has the entire newsworld talking about him; a good choice indeed.
Earlier it was announced that Governor Sarah Palin is John McCain’s running mate. After months of deliberations, and much speculation in recent weeks, McCain chose someone no one talked about; a woman called Sarah Palin. Palin has quite a long record, and she was mentioned as a possible choice weeks ago, but in recent weeks, the choice appeared to be between three people, all men; Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty.
Although all those three men would add something to the Republican ticket, most of them would not truly surprise anyone (except Lieberman of course, and even with him the surprise would not be as big as it is with Palin).
And that is why McCain’s choice is good. It forces people to talk about him. People talked about Barack Obama and Joe Biden for days, even though Biden was quite a conventional chioce.
Palin is not a conventional choice, so people will talk about it even more.
Additionally, it takes something away from Obama with regards to a historical campaign; if McCain and Palin win, the United States will, for the first time in its history, have a female vice president.
Furthermore, Palin is young. She is only 44 years old, that is 3 years younger than Obama. Obama and the Democrats in general are trying to portray McCain as old (which he is) and therefore a representative of ‘more of the same.’ Palin undermines this ‘argument’ Obama frequently uses.
Although Palin does not have any foreign policy experience, this will not be a problem; after all, McCain has all the experience in this regard the two of them need.
McCain also has problems with the conservative base; those problems will now disappear. Palin has a strong anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage record. This even though she is quite independent minded; she makes her own decisions. For instance, she was more than willing to take on the oil companies in her home state, Alaska.
But that’s not the main point of McCain’s choice; no, what matters most right now is that he has people talking about him, and about his running mate. The eyes of the world are on the two of them instead of on Obama.
as long as Palin Pick doesn’t turn into Harriet Miers Pick.
I have heard you say that before and I disagree with the comparison. Bush picked Miers not only because she was a woman but he thought she deserved since she had worked with him for so long. McCain and Palin hardly know each other yet. As for not being experienced, well neither Carter, Clinton, GW Bush had foreign policy experience. Granted they aren’t all good presidents but I think people are overstating her lack of experience and being a gimmick pick.
I wanted someone to come in from with a domestic viewpoint and she does handle that well. It’s a risky pick for sure but I like it for that reason. Like Michael was talking about, I am not even sure a Romney or Pawlenty pick would have moved Obama’s speech off the front page, Palin did. So for the short term it’s a great pick, we have to see how she handles things on whether for the long haul it was good.
If she undermines the age argument, Biden undermines the experience argument.
Then they essentially cancel each other out.
That’s fantastic, then. Instead of harping on vague generalities like "age" or "experience", maybe people will have to argue about specific issues and policies.
Or maybe I yet again hope in vain.
Jason, while I understand that issues are often what drives elections, i think that experience and judgement matter as well.
Many independents and partisans alike seem to think that everything rides on issues and define candidates in terms of issues (pro-choice, appeasement, etc.). While they carry a large amount of weight (I have a few issues that I care about such as free trade and deficit reduction), the notion of experience and judgement is important. Take National Security. A lot of people vote against "appeasement," but isn’t appeasement just a blunder on one side that could be met with disaster if you bludered the other way? Munich was a disaster caused by appeasement. But if Versailles, a disaster caused by belligerence, hadn’t happened you wouldn’t have had Munich. Isn’t the appropriate response to find a tough, shrewd negotiator who will make the right decisions and put him in charge instead? Judgement counts for
In the confusion many people are following lines of stories that frankly don’t seem quite accurate. She did overturn a proposal about gay visiting rights, but did so because it was against the constitution, and she had "no other choice." Conversely, she said that Creation should be taught alongside evolution, but then backed off from it the next day ,and added that she wasn’t going to get out in front of that issue. She is quite an ordinary person; that much is clear, but I have some serious doubts about her and about what this pick says about McCain.
Don’t tell McCain’s mama that he’s too old. She’ll kick your ass. (She’s still chuggin’ along at 96.)
No you didn’t - if you did. provide it.
So far I’m liking what I’ve heard, but it sounds like she hasn’t been vetted very well.