Throughout this campaign John McCain's principal weapon against Obama was the question of experience. That weapon has now been essentially neutralized with McCain's own pick of an extremely inexperienced housewife...er..a...politician, Sarah Palin. Former beauty queen, oops there goes the celebrity rap too, mayor of a small town for 10 years then governor of the 48th smallest state in the nation for one and one-half years with zero experience or exposure to foreign affairs. The one last criticizm of Obama which was only a reverse defensive tactic, that of lack of experience begatting poor judgement, has gone out the window by selecting Palin to be one heart beat away from commander and chief never mind the other responsiblities. With Obama firing off in his acceptance speech about McCain's lack of judgement he never dreamed it would be such a timely prologue to McCain's next act, the V.P. pick. McCain has given up all three weapons against Obama and has given up the competency and judgement rap in spades.
In Palin, McCain could not have picked a weaker candidate to take his place. On the face of it you get some of the same feeling of when Ross Perot picked Admiral Stockdale for vice-president 16 years ago, that is it makes no sense for someone seriously wanting to be president. Palin is off the page and leaders in the Republican establishment are fuming believing that the inclusion of Palin in the V.P. list was primarily political and not to become a reality but now desperately try to put the best face on it. As much as Stockdale came across as slow and "out of it", Palin is light, light and then light. A brisk peppy personality but then little more in national public service experience with the albatross of the Bush/Cheney connection where she is tied to oil companies. It will take the media ignoring her negatives and then bringing her positives under extreme onesided magnification in order to sell her but then that is something the other side will not allow. Already there is question about the extent of her commitment to ethical reform since it has been revealed she endorsed millions of dollars in earmarks as governor and millions in earmarks during her mayoral years. The stand McCain trumpets for her on the Alaskan bridge is dishonest since she rejected the "bridge to nowhere" only after the U.S. congress had fully cancelled it. In the beginning while the "bridge to nowwhere" was a live issue she supported the bridge.
One can feel for McCain in his evident desperate attempt to find a qualified ethical politician from his side of the aisle.
McCain would like people to believe this V.P. pick underlines his independence but in fact the truth is he caved in to the base of the Republican party, the religious right, by selecting one of their own instead of who he really wanted, pro-choice Joe Lieberman, although I'm sure the right would have liked a male at the position. At best she is his soul mate on ethics reform but it ends there as the religious right were already holding their nose for McCain.
Obama has all three arguments now, the experience issue, McCains poor judgement on Iraq, more tax cuts for the rich and the shakey vice presidential pick. Oh yes and the former beauty queen firmly puts the celebrity rap into Obama's arsenal as well and well if that is not enough, a risky desperate pick such as Palin bodes the question; will he make these types of decisions under pressure as president? And that brings us back to judgement.
As it was for one politician 16 years ago one must ask; What could McCain be thinking.
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