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.]