Ironic, isn’t it, that in the very week when all we’ve been talking about here is the place of women in our society, Republican presidential candidate John McCain picks Sarah Palin to be his running mate?
It was a bold stroke, you have to give him credit for that. And it sure did take Barack Obama’s acceptance speech off the front pages, didn’t it? People are not talking today about Obama, they are talking about a woman from Alaska…
GOP Presidential candidate John McCain demonstrated once again that he likes to think outside the box with the announcement today of his pick of Ms. Palin, governor of our northernmost state, as his vice-presidential candidate.
That having been said, the wonderment at the end of this week is whether he just assured himself of the Presidency — or whether he shot himself in the foot.
If McCain thinks that he has just picked up all or most of the disaffected Hillary voters with this move, I believe he’s going to find out that he’s sadly mistaken.
First, nearly all of Hillary’s staunchest supporters are now in Barack Obama’s camp. They could not be anywhere else, given the powerful endorsements of Obama and his agenda given by Hillary and Bill Clinton this week. The two were unambiguous and almost challening in their direct call to Hillary supporters to get on the train.
Hillary made the case Tuesday night that she sure hoped that people did not vote for her simply because she was a woman, and that it was her agenda for the country that she wanted them to support — an agenda they can continue to support by throwing their energies behind Barack Obama, who shares the same priorities.
“No way, no how, no McCain!” she shouted to her troops…and they could not have missed the mandate.
President Clinton the next night put to rest the “not ready for prime time” argument that McCain has been using on Obama throughout this campaign. All his experience tells him, the former president said, that Senator Obama is absolutely ready to take the reins at the White House.
Now, with the choice of Gov. Palin as his running mate, John McCain seems to be saying that the “experience” question doesn’t matter anymore. As brilliant as Sarah Palin may be (and by all accounts, she is exactly that), on the “experience” question she brings even less to the table than Barack Obama. Americans will now be asking two questions:

1. Is Sarah Palin ready to stand one heartbeat away from the presidency — and to step into the Oval Office should anything happen (perish the thought) to John McCain?
2. If she IS…then how is Barack Obama NOT ready to be in that same office?

These are fair questions, and that’s what makes this such a bold move by McCain. He has just effectively neutralized the “experience question.” But the real question is, has he also just picked up Hillary’s most bitter supporters?
The betting here is not. I am guessing that most women who voted for Hillary are going to see right through this maneuver by the GOP’s standard bearer, and will push back from this raw and naked attempt at manipulation, judging that the senator from Arizona is guilty of pandering in the worst way, hoping to get their vote for HIM simply because his running mate is female — — no matter that she is pro-life and anti-abortion rights. No matter that she is as conservative a poltiician as they come, favoring drilling for oil in Alaska’s wildlife preserves and opposing same sex marriage, and most, if not all, of the important social positions taken by Hillary Clinton.
Not quite good enough, I don’t think, to get those women votes. I don’t think Mr. McCain can “buy” them in this way. But, it will be interesting to watch.
NOW who does the country have more confidence in…Obama/Biden, or McCain/Palin…?
I just felt the Confidence-O-Meter go down ten notches on the McCain ticket. Whew. What a risk we’d be taking, putting this perfectly (I’m sure) nice former mayor of a town of 9,000 in Nowhere, Alaska one heartbeat away from the Situation Room. Uh….does anybody else have a queasy stomach over this?
Even Ed Rollins, who served as political director for President Reagan, called it a “risky” choice, if brilliant. Said Mr. Rollins, a CNN commentator, in his blog today:

John McCain’s brilliant but risky “Hail Mary pass” choice for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah “Barracuda” Palin, has the political world saying first: Who? And then: Why?

It’s a Hail Mary pass for sure. And I think it signals where the McCain camp sees that it is in this game. It’s fourth and 25 on their own 10 yard line.
A Hail Mary pass indeed…
Mr. Rollins goes on in his blog to praise Ms. Palin, and to give his reasons why the pick might be considered brilliant.

…she is a governor and outside the Beltway. Conservatives love her and she shares John McCain’s value system. She is also known for taking on the establishment and ethics is her forte. She defeated the longtime senator and Republican governor in a primary and then went on and defeated the former Democratic governor.
I don’t believe people vote for vice president but only for president. That said, I think she is every bit as good a choice as Biden…I think the potential for her to attract women voters is immense.

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Well, I don’t agree, for the reasons I stated above. Women aren’t going to vote for McCain simply because his running mate in a woman. The Democrats already proved that when they ran Geraldine Ferraro for VP.
I agree more with CNN commentator Paul Begala , once an aide to President Clinton, who writes in his blog today that McCain, in choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, “is not thinking ‘outside the box,’ as some have said. More like out of his mind.”
Begala goes on…

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain’s age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment…For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.

I could not have put that any better.