Petroleum (BP) Todd Palin; fiscal conservative; former mayor of Wasilla, AK (2005 pop. 8,471 est.); two years experience as governor of Alaska; supporter of arctic drilling -- has been chosen to be John McCain's running mate.
What are the Republicans thinking? What is John McCain thinking?
Palin has a 90 percent approval rating in Alaska. "Wow!" you say, "She must be great. Looks like a sure winning ticket."
Uh, slow down. Not so fast. Take a moment to think.
Personally, I think McCain just made a major blunder.
Alaskans love Palin. That means they will vote for Obama-Biden. They want Governor Palin in Alaska, not Washington, DC. McCain will lose Alaska. Guaranteed.
Alaskans are fed up with Republic an corruption in that state. The only reliable weapon they have against it is their Republican governor who has taken on her own party to clean up the corruption.
They only way McCain carries Alaska now is if Palin is found to have been culpable in the firing of her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooton, an Alaska state trooper (who allegedly threatened to kill her father). If that happens, the McCain-Palin ticket is dead in the other 49 states on account of the scandal.
A scandal for Palin will revive talk about McCain's own misuse of power crisis involving the Keating 5 and the national savings and loan crisis.
Joining McCain for the announcement last night, Palin invoked the "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" Hillary Clinton declared in her June 7, 2008 concession speech and pompously proclaimed that she, with John McCain, will now crash through it.
Really? What is she betting on? That McCain will die soon after the inauguration? She is the vice presidential candidate. The Democrats have been there, done that. Remember Geraldine Ferraro of Mondale-Ferraro in 1984?
Crashing through the glass ceiling Hillary put 18 million cracks in? Palin did absolutely nothing to get on the ticket. She was merely anointed for the role (almost as bad as being installed by the Supreme Court like Bush-Cheney).
Does Governor Palin really think Hillary will stand quietly by while she expropriates her lines?
McCain solved one problem, and one problem only, by choosing Palin. He can stop worrying about the right wing of his party staying home on election day. They will come out for Palin.
But he has solved that problem at a huge price. He has lost what previously was seen to be his most potent weapon: his Barack is "not ready to be president" line of attack.
If McCain were to win in November, Sarah Palin would be a heartbeat away from the presidency. She has no foreign policy experience, no international relations record of any kind. She has never even faced the pressure and trials of a national campaign, let alone act on the world stage.
A vote for McCain-Palin will be a gigantic gamble for voters, a gamble that John McCain will survive his term of office.
Three a.m. phone calls anyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment