She’s Not Even The Most Famous Palin
To me, this is by far the most surprising development of the campaign. Palin is younger and more inexperienced than Barack Obama, so it is possible Democrats can point out the hypocrisy of his choice. But really, this seems like an excellent move on McCain’s part. And that’s probably the first and only time I will say that this election.
Of course, if the investigation into the firing of her state trooper brother-in-law goes anywhere, Johnny will probably have to drop her and pick someone else. At which time, you will be able to get out your forks and stick them into the campaign of John Sidney McCain III, because it will be done. So definitely a ballsy roll of the dice.
And somewhat off topic but completely relevant to the campaign, what kind of a middle name is Sidney? Did McCain get teased about this as a child? Because that might explain a lot. “Sidney, stop threatening to ‘bomb’ your brother.”
Pundits are almost universally sounding off about how Palin won’t be able to hold her own in a debate with Biden and when discussing the issues on the campaign trail. Personally, I find this to be true of a lot of Republicans. The only difference with Palin will be that because the media is expecting it, they may actually report on it when it happens. Remember, Obama has a much better understanding of policy than McCain. I’m not sure how much that is helping him with voters.
I’ve gone on too long, as I have most of the convention, but I will say this: Obama’s pick was analyzed for what it said about Obama. Was he choosing who he wanted or was he balancing out his ticket to appease voters?
McCain wanted to choose Tom Ridge (who brought you color-coded terror alerts) or Joe Lieberman, and was strongly considering Mitt Romney in the two seat (or shotgun, as I like to call it). Palin is already an awesome pick just for the fact that she is not one of these three men.
But she is a new gov from Alaska. She has not worked with John McCain. She may not even know his shameful middle name, and he knows very little about her. There is only one reason to pick her. And that is desperation. This is a political move to keep McCain viable, it has nothing to do with putting the country first and giving it a great vice president.
I happen to think that Washington needs more young people from the far corners of the country (preferably ones that don’t believe in Intelligent Design). But that is not what John McCain believes. I am really looking forward to his explanation of this decision. It’s thinking outside the box, but it’s not believing outside the box. Which is basically the story of his entire political career.
4 comments August 29th, 2008