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Palin: An Inspired Choice for McCain Running Mate

Posted by MARK DANIELS in Politics.
Aug 29th, 2008 | Comments

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been on my radar screen since she won election in 2006. So, while her selection by Senator John McCain to be his running mate surprised me, I think it was also an inspired choice. Why?

The woman appears to have guts and integrity, both rare assets in Alaska’s oil-saturated politics of corruption. If you watched a recent profile of Alaskan politics on ‘60 Minutes,’ you know that Palin has stood out for several years as a pol who not only pushes for ethics, but also as one willing to stand against powerful members of her own party in the process.

Politically, Palin has an interesting combination of attributes and policy positions that have the potential of both helping the Republican cause and hurting the Democratic opposition:

1. As a woman, she may attract those disappointed Hillary Clinton supporters who felt that this, at long last, was the year when a woman would be elected to the executive branch of US government. Even apart from her potential of wooing that group, she could help McCain eat into Obama’s currently-large lead among women.

2. As a governor, albeit one of short tenure, she’s the only one of the four major party’s nominees this year with any executive experience, something in which US voters have traditionally put a lot of stock. That experience also includes a stint as a small-town mayor.

3. She cannot be accused of being part of the Washington, inside-the-beltway crowd.

4. Her family includes a son about to be deployed to Iraq, a husband deeply supportive of her career choices, and several other children, including one who has Down’s Syndrome, all of which serves to create a picture of someone who knows what “the average American” is dealing with each day.

Palin obviously lacks anything like the years in Washington or the experience with foreign policy that Senator Joe Biden can claim, something she has in common with the Democratic nominee for president, Senator Barack Obama, meaning that experience becomes a wash between the two tickets.

But in watching Palin’s career as governor unfold over the past few years, I have been impressed by her intelligence, her chutzpah, and her apparent commitment to ethics in government.

Senator Obama’s choice of Senator Biden to be his running mate was a great pick. Senator McCain has made a different kind of choice, not one that I would have necessarily anticipated, but a laudatory one nonetheless. This is going to be a fun fall campaign!

[You can read all sorts of other cool stuff on my personal blog. At least, I think it's cool.]

empireofno

absolutely agree with this post - i think mccain's move is brilliant. one thing that obama's fans need to understand is that attacking her for a having what is still more executive experience than obama only focuses attention on _his_ lack of experience,. and he's the one running for president, not her.

JSpencer

This is quite an optimistic attitude being expressed. For my own part I'm willing to wait and see before pronouncing her a wise pick or not, seeing as her vetting is incomplete. That said, the extremely limited experience she has (for a possible president) IS an issue, and like it or not, it points out hypocrisy on the part of McCain. As for Hillary supporters flocking to what is clearly a hard-core republican base candidate? Don't hold your breath. Folks who were desperate to see McCain do something, anything to seem more viable, will latch on to this and suddenly discover the politics of hope.

joep

I think to spin her as a positive misses the big picture. This was pureley a "tactical" pick to secure the Republican base. Merely because she is a women is no reason for a Clinton supporter to walk away from Obama that would have gone with him anyway. Especially because her views are so divergant from everything that HC stands for. Let's face it, if she was a man, would she have been selected? It is fairly condecending to expect a Clinton supporter to go with McCain specifically because his running mate is a women.

On a bigger picture, Obama has all of the "strategic" advantages. Obama has the enthusiasm edge by a wide margin. He has a serious ground game that McCain does not have. He has an organization that Microsoft would respect. One that is working on all cylinders. The biggest strategic advantage is that he has no money constraints while McCain is limited to public funding.

In the face of these "strategic" advantages and the the democratic convention, which was played "strategically" (don't think for a minute that the Clinton stuff wasn't play acting to the press to build interest in the convention), McCain made a forced tactical move to be relevant. He in essence went for a bomb on third and 20. In the end of the day the only possible advantage McCain really gets is to firm up the fundamentalist base.

It is obvious that Obama and Biden are smart pols who know how to play this strategically. The game plan is to go after McCain, and that will not change. They will not go after Palin, no need to. McCain will have no wing person to protect his flank. No attack dog the way Biden will filet McCain like a ginsu. Now that McCain has pissed off all of the other prospective attack dogs, the only people he probably has left are Lieberman, Graham & Guiliani. No one from the current administration, because of the Bush unfavorability factor.

It's lonely out there when you go for looks and ideology over competence.

JSpencer

"It's lonely out there when you go for looks and ideology over competence."

She may be competent as mayor of a small town, but being a heartbeat away from the presidency requires a little higher standard no? The bloom on this rose may not last so very long..

joep

JSpencer,

I agree with you 100%. Sarah Palin is a very "attractive" candidate that fits an ideological need. That's it. Palin may claim to be a reformer, but that's not hard given the political cesspool in Alaska. The rest of her narrative-hockey mom, NRA member, fisherwomen and hunter is either totally irrelevant or is already in the McCain camp.

Her favorability ratings are high--but given the mess in Alaska any credible pol could do that. Remember, the residents in Alaska don't pay income tax. In fact they get a dividend check every year due to oil royalties. This is not an economic environment that forces a politician to make serious decisions.

Not only does she eliminate the "experience" argument that McCain has thrown out there, but she blows him up in other areas. The whole Rezko lie that is circulating out there is nothing compared to the corruption in Alaska Republican Politics. Stevens under indictment, Young being investigated, a number of local politicos under indictment and Palin's own "trooper" problems. Kind of hard to push the Rezko line when Obama has been cleared of any problems and Palin is currently under investigation.

By most accounts this is an economics election. By his own admission, McCain doesn't know much about economics. Up till now he has relied on Phil "the american people are whiners" Gramm as his spokesman. He would have done himself some huge favors by selecting someone with economics gravitas. For all his faults, Mitt Romney would have at least been able to have some credability and would be able to speak with some intelligence. McCain still has noone officially who has any gravitas to speak about economic issues. Carly Fiorina ran HP into the ground before she got fired. I guess Meg Whitman and thats it--but then who is Meg Whitman.

JSpencer

Yes indeed, McCain admits he doesn't know anything about economics, and Palin admits she doesn't know anything about what a Vice President does. Sounds like someone is pitching an idea for a comedy to me.

Jim_Satterfield

I doubt any but the hard core PUMA types will support someone as hard core ideologically like Bush as Palin is. Check out some more on her stands on issues, Mark.

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