I would not have thought it possible, but McCain and his advisers have made the perfect vice presidential selection in Sarah Palin. It is an ingenious, even thrilling choice, and one that is all the more remarkable in that it was completely unexpected. All the other candidates, such as Romney and Pawlenty, were boring and came with serious drawbacks. Obama has certainly added excitement to the Democratic ticket; now, with his choice of Palin, McCain has done the same for the Republicans.
Compare Obama's unimaginative selection of Joe Biden--another Washington D.C. blowhard--with McCain's choice. I suppose Biden is supposed to win over lower-middle-class white voters by the fact that he is a backslapping good old boy who likes to watch football games and eat chili dogs. What Biden offers is a proven record of mediocrity, and perhaps he can appeal to mediocre people on the basis of a shared absence of accomplisment.
I'm not saying that Palin has accomplished much either. What she has is potential. The Obama camp has already released its first commercial attacking Palin. But how ridiculous does Obama sound in faulting her for lack of experience? Palin is serving her first term as governor, but then Obama is serving his first term as senator. Palin has no foreign policy experience and has only been to Iraq once; Obama's level of foreign policy experience is exactly the same. It's worth noting, in this context, that Obama, unlike Palin, is at the top of the ticket. Palin will at least have a chance to learn on the job; Obama wants to step right into the Oval Office. So every time the Democrats use the experience charge against Palin, they remind the American people of Obama's greatest weakness.
Here's why Palin is such a good choice. She seems like an incredibly wholesome person who doesn't so much talk about family values as embody them. This is the best kind of social conservative: one whose life is an exemplar of the kind of American dream that we can all admire. In attacking her, I think her critics like Paul Begala and James Carville sound like total jerks. I'd like to see more of those carping attack dogs on TV: they can only help Palin.
With her support for a muscular foreign policy and guns and oil drilling, Palin is an across-the-board conservative, which will reinforce McCain's credentials with the right-wing base of the party. Not that those guys had anyone else to vote for, but the choice of Palin will increase the enthusiasm of GOP activists in working hard for a McCain victory. Second, unlike Bush, McCain has chosen a deputy who can be a future leader of the Republican Party. Palin is also young and thus helps to neutralize Obama's youthful advantage. As a woman, Palin will not so much win over the disenchanted Hillary supporters as pick up Hillary's argument to independent voters that it's about time America had a strong woman in its top echelons of political office. For every Obama supporter who can claim an historic first for the Democrats, Palin enthusiasts can make an equal historic claim for the Republicans.
The media will continue to lionize Obama-Biden and attack McCain-Palin. It's only a short time before we start hearing that Palin is the "wrong kind of woman." (Would anyone dare argue that Obama is the "wrong kind of black man"?) Still, the American people have gotten pretty good at seeing through the media charade. A whole summer of media genuflections hasn't produced a substantial Democratic lead. For months, McCain and Obama have remained virtually tied. Now, with Palin, the Republicans have their first chance to pull ahead.
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 22)
46. Biden has promised "unity" But isn’t unity supposed to be something magnetic? When Obama says he wants to unify the country, isn’t the idea that Americans willingly want to unify in a spirit of togetherness and cooperation? This sounds like the Communists in the U.S.S.R. telling the world that their people were united. They were united all right. Or else the KGB came by for some vodka and a chat. Obama has completely taken over the apparatus of the Democrat Party and will control every aspect of it.
Let’s not forget that half of the Democrat Party voted against Obama, and some (perhaps significant) percentage of those folks in the Party hierarchy and around the country have threatened to stay
home or vote for McCain. The message to those folks from the Boss in Chicago is that you are welcome to stay, but keep your mouth shut and do what you are told
Nobama at 3:38AM on Sep 1st 2008
47. Gee, Dinesh, you don't watch much TV, do you? You still believe that fairy tale about a liberal media? Silly, silly, silly Dinesh!
Amelie at 4:07AM on Sep 1st 2008
48. Meanwhile, Geraldine Ferraro said that she expects many women, as well as men, who supported Hillary and feel the Democrat Party treated her unfairly will vote for McCain, because he picked a woman.
xxx
right. she's been a little off on calling them lately, to be kind. That makes as much sense as HIV+ revenge sex. I suspect she'll be defecting herself, though after what she said in the primarys.
Clif Kuplen at 4:16AM on Sep 1st 2008
49. As a 39 year-old female, McCain naming Palin as his VP choice has gotten me EXCITED about a Presidential election for the firt time EVER. Granted, I exercise my right to vote in every election, but was never really gung ho for any of the choices. I actually had Dem friends ask my how - as a woman - I could justify my NOT supporting Hillary. The answer, as I told them, was simple - she is not a woman I can relate to nor does she make me want to support her. She comes across as cold and rigid, her husband made a laughing stock of the White House as the seat of power in the free world with his “extracurricular activities”, and she simply does not stand for the same things I do.
Palin, however, is an incredible breath of fresh air. She is a REAL person whom I can relate to. She is not long-term national politics; she had a baby at age 44 when she knew his special needs would mean a lifetime of caring for him (not just til age 18); she has interests and hobbies similar to your everyday, average American. Most importantly, she FIGHTS against “good ole boys” (and I grew up in the South, so I KNOW what those are like), against corruption, and seems to have a moral/integrity compass that she FOLLOWS.
Thank you McCain, for making one female voter really excited to support you and your VP choice.
Kzwayzee at 4:36AM on Sep 1st 2008
50. I refuse to vote for a man who thinks America is full of morons. McCain had two other presently serving governors to choose from, so why choose Palin?
The only reason I can come up with is the fact that she is younger than the other two which gives here a better camera presence.
I think he wanted to gain Clinton voters, but all he has done is turn those planning to vote for him into Obama supporters.
Also I do not believe that "teaching the debate" belongs in science classrooms.
~C
P.S. My husband is from Phoenix AZ and has a high opinion of McCain, but he just isn't cutting it anymore.
Charity at 4:50AM on Sep 1st 2008
51. DD: "For every Obama supporter who can claim an historic first for the Democrats, Palin enthusiasts can make an equal historic claim for the Republicans."
I guess no one remembers Geraldine Ferraro.
Ryan Anderson at 6:11AM on Sep 1st 2008
52. ATHEIST
The issue is NOT whether Palin would be a breath of fresh air.
Is she QUALIFIED to take over the American government if McCain has to step down?
No, she is not.
Yes, she loves all of her children, including one that may have Down Syndrome.
But the question is, IF a mother decides to abort at the FOURTH MONTH, after learning that her fetus has the same genetic markers for Down Syndrome...
... should that be a CRIME?
Why should having an abortion be a criminal act?
That's why I call Palin a dimwit. Not because she decided to keep her child, but because she wants to use the power of government to force OTHER WOMEN to raise children with Down Syndrome.
NOT... very bright, this lady is.
William Hays at 6:54AM on Sep 1st 2008
53. Dinesh.
I have finished watching your most recent debate with Dr Hitchens and is there a word you can use to describe him that isn't "pompus douchebag"?
The man seems to be a natural asshole who is so confident in himself that he is about to implode from his own sense of superiority.
Allabaster at 7:54AM on Sep 1st 2008
54. ATHEIST
Any time an atheist encounters a Christian like Dinesh, of course he feels superior.
Have you read the New Testament?
Did you understand what you read?
Jesus has a conversation with a demon that has taken possession of a human being.
His mother has a conversation with an angel in a dream, saying Jesus will be a son of god.
After Jesus is killed by Romans, his girl friend has a dream where he meets her in a garden.
nonsense.... after nonsense... after nonsense.
the Bible is a SALES PITCH for a cult based on the idea that the dead can come back to life. Nothing more.
We laugh at Christians like Dinesh. All the time. Can't help it. dinesh thinks he's qualified to debate, and he's not. He's the victim of a scam that shouldn't fool anyone with an IQ over 90.
William Hays at 7:59AM on Sep 1st 2008
55. ATHEIST
I'm still having trouble with my comments disappearing.
Why do Atheists feel superior?
have you read the New Testament?
Jesus enters a synagogue, where he meets a man possessed by an invisible demon. The demon says, "You are Jesus of Nazareth, the holy one of God."
an invisible demon gives him a reference. right.
His mother has a dream, where an angel gives the same message.
After jesus dies, his girlfriend has a dream about meeting Jesus in a garden.
The Gospels are nothing but a SALES PITCH for a cult based on the possibility of the dead coming back to life.
Anyone with an IQ over 90 should be able to figure this out. Dinesh can't. That's why every Atheist feels superior when they look down at him.
William Hays at 8:10AM on Sep 1st 2008
56. John McCain's selection of Gov. Palin would be a good one for history and for the Rebublican party, if it were genuine and not so transparent. We have to remember this person would be one step away from the presidency. She is not ready to be commander in chief and everyone knows it. By contrast Joe Biden is and he adds strength where Obama is weak, they compliment each other. Where as McCains pick is purely political.
Greg Allen at 9:37AM on Sep 1st 2008
57. Robert you seem to like words and are the jackel of the site. We dont care to have a spelling teacher here. Your grammar means nothing on this forum. Just the facts please. I hope you are not suggesting that obama is wise or that he has vision. If so before you open your dictionary do some research on HIM.
bob at 4:40PM on Sep 1st 2008
58. We have become a nation of sheep- lambs before lions, if you will, and the mint sauce is brewing.
The selection of Sarah Palin as the new face of the GOP, their "spokesmodel" if you will, should be an affront to ALL Americans, who have been successfully "dumbed down" to the point where style bests substance, and where the word "liberal" evokes the same emotional response as "terrorist".
Had the Democrats pulled such an obviously pathetic stunt, the howls of outrage from the right would have blown Hurricane Gustav back to Cuba, but I said it once, and I'll say it again, the giddy right-wing glee over the selection of a person whom they know almost nothing about, scares the living shit out of me, if for nothing else than the realization of what a land of retarded children we have unwittingly become.
"God" help us all.
Robert at 9:58AM on Sep 1st 2008
59. To pretend that Ms Sarah Palin has the equivalent experience or background as Barak Obama is wishful thinking at best or deceit at its worst.
Obama has been in the US Senate for approximately 4 years and before that was an Illinois senator for seven. Prior to that he was a law professor and civil rights attorney and before that was president of the Harvard Law Review, an honor and a lot of work given by fellow members of the review to only one student a year.
OK. Sarah Palin's been governor of Alaska for 19 months, a state with the 47th lowest population in the country. Before that she was mayor for a while and board member of a small village with a population of about 8,000. Before that she was a beauty contest runner-up.
Is that what our country needs one beat from the presidency when the man whom she might replace as president is over seventy years old with a history of melanoma, a very serious form of cancer that does recur? In reality she's a continuance of unworthy VP candidates chosen by Republican nominees in the recent past. First (unless there have been others before I was born)came Spiro Agnew, so low a choice that he was forced to resign because of criminal charges. Like Sarah his path to his vice-presidential candidacy was quick but not as quick as hers. It took him six years to get from county executive to Vice-president as opposed to her mere 19 months. Next comes Dan Quayle, in Congress for over a decade, but practically unknown then, yet well known now for the incompetent that he was.
And here is Sarah Palin, 19 months as governor of the 47th smallest state in the union as potential vice president to the oldest and least healthy of our presidents since FDR when FDR was elected in 1944, and he died in 1945. Dan Quayle may have been almost unknown in 1988 but he'd been in Congress for over ten years. What do we or will we really know about Sarah now or two months from now?
KidRimbaud at 11:29AM on Sep 1st 2008
60. Mr. Hays.... you would think if the the gospels were so ludicrous as you claim, nobody would be spending much time talking about them now... that must bother you. Oh, and Happy Labor Day!
Shannie at 10:07AM on Sep 1st 2008