I’ve spent a little time rolling around the idea of Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for running mate. I completely admit that I had no idea who she was when it was announced – and even now I really don’t know a bunch. But the more I think about it, the more I think it was a good choice for McCain. Why?
She is dominating the news cycle. When it comes down to it, that is pretty much all that a VP pick really has to do other than be an attack dog. And the fact that all of the media is chatting away on this the day after Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech means mission accomplished. Today’s news cycle was really supposed to be owned by Obama, the master speechmaker accepting his party’s nomination in front of 90,000 people – this day was supposed to the beginning of the end for McCain as Obama dominated, instead no one can stop talking about Governor Palin.
Her obvious flaw of a lack of experience is dulled by Obama’s equal relative lack of experience. I usually disdain the experience card, but I think the permutations of how Palin’s experience can be attacked / Obama’s experience can be attacked don’t play out in well in Obama’s favour. Attacks from Obama’s team on Palin will ultimately draw attention to Obama’s lack of experience, and McCain still gets to hit back on Obama’s. Still, I dislike attacking on this line.
She will likely satisfy the conservative base of the Republicans. I admit I don’t understand how the religious right of the United States works at all, but they are always portrayed as caring more about the values of a candidate than their credentials or experience (and derisively, more than talent or ability as well) – in which case the pro-life, NRA lifetime member Palin meets the standard.
She is a girl and will cause the media to still talk about Hillary. I’m not entirely convinced throngs of Hillary supporters will flock to McCain because of this choice, but it won’t likely hurt. But perhaps more importantly the news cycle of Hillary will continue as a result. Interviews with Hillary-supporters voting McCain/Palin, etc.
She doesn’t have the flaws of the other options. Many of the other choices bandied about by the GOP had huge drawbacks – now she may have all sorts of drawbacks that we just don’t know about, but for the moment, her flaws are small.
Now, there is still lots to mention about her – that she will make McCain just look that much older, that her inexperience will dull the most effective weapon against Obama, etc. But if you buy that McCain is playing with a pretty weak hand as is, this is exactly the kind of move that will invigorate his run for the White House.
Also interesting in my mind is how much better the McCain/Palin ticket would be for my own country – as an Alaska governor Palin certainly doesn’t need anyone to point out where Canada is on the map, and I imagine she has a lot in common with Canadians. Couple that with McCain’s to-date more pro-Canadian stance and see a warming of American-Canadian relations if McCain won.
But I don’t think he will. When it is all said and done, I’m still rooting for Obama – he strikes me as a good dose of what the most powerful democracy needs right now.
