McCain’s VP Choice: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (McCain Shakes Things Up with Palin Pick)
The best-kept secret of the 2008 presidential campaign — at least since last week’s vice-presidential sweepstakes — came to an end with John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. McCain successfully completed the greatest head fake of the campaign, leaving most pundits and supporters believing late last night that his pick was Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
After a tumultuous morning where William Goldman’s adage was proved true (â€no one knows anythingâ€), the guessing came to an end. The choice makes sense on multiple levels. The McCain camp has spent the week stirring the pot, playing on the heartstrings of women disappointed by the rejection of Hillary Clinton, first as the Democrats’ presidential nominee and then as the VP pick. In a presidential race dominated by male senators, Palin will have the sole executive experience of the four candidates. And in the battle for “change†there is no candidate who looks more different and comes from further outside Washington than Palin.
His selection is likely to come as a relief to social conservatives who worried that a pro-choice pick was in the offing and to other conservatives who fretted that a Mitt Romney pick would provide a juicy target for the Democrats, who are already strutting their populist rhetoric. How did McCain get to Palin, who was never on the media-created short list of potential candidates?
The choice of Biden almost certainly complicated McCain’s pick. Romney would have exacerbated the “rich guy†problem which was given new life by the flap over McCain’s multiple houses. It seemed too much to have a dozen homes on the Republican side of the ledger, especially when confronting Biden’s carefully cultivated image of a scrappy kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania. And Pawlenty might have seemed too ordinary and was sure to be overshadowed and out-talked in a debate with Biden.
Multiple floats and refloats about Senator Joe Lieberman made their way to the surface. Had Karl Rove tried to nix the pick? Would social conservatives revolt? By late in the week the buzz started that it might be a woman, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson or one of McCain’s economic advisers such as Meg Whitman or Carly Fiorina. Late Thursday pundits and McCain supporters still were perplexed and uncertain about the choice, a remarkable achievement in this day of leaks. Given the uncertainty and potential for an intra-party battle, the overwhelming early reaction within Republican ranks is an odd mix of relief and outright excitement. The tour de force maneuver to keep the choice secret certainly shut off the buzz from the Obama speech.
Who is Sarah Palin? She is 44 years old, a former mayor, and the first-term governor of Alaska who ran on an anti-corruption platform. She is a strong advocate of offshore drilling. She is the mother of five including a child with Down Syndrome. In her tenure as Alaska governor she has pursued ethics reform, budget reduction, and natural gas development. In short, she is unlike anyone on either ticket and unlike anyone ever to be on a major party’s ticket. Two large questions loom: How will she handle questions about national security? Will she help McCain?
As to the first question, Palin will argue that in fact Obama has no more experience than she does, and that Palin has the advantage of sharing McCain’s views (and thus being right) on the surge, Russian ambitions, and meetings with state terror sponsors. The VP debate against Biden may be dicey, but the McCain camp knows full well that a vice-presidential debate isn’t going to make or break their candidate. In short, McCain is hoping that Palin is good enough on this score for a number two pick against a Democratic ticket headed by a man with virtually the same meager national security credentials.
As to the second, Palin has much to offer McCain. On a non-political level few can doubt her Q-factor. (She will be the first former beauty queen to run on a national ticket.) The daughter of a teacher and mother of five, she has an ebullient personality and an excellent TV presence. The Right will be entranced: a pro-life hunter with a passion for domestic energy development? And in the battle for “change†she has the record of reform and the identity of a complete Washington outsider. Finally, as a lifelong NRA member, an outdoorswoman, and a western governor she may provide extra help in mountain and western states such as Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico which are certain to be in play.
On the policy front, Palin can make the case that the Democratic program of higher taxes, more spending, and a government takeover of health care is a proven loser. She will argue that she can bring practical experience from as far outside the Beltway as one can get. And, of course, the presence of a woman on the ticket creates instantaneous excitement and puts into play Clinton voters looking for a new champion.
The pick also tells us something about McCain: he thinks he can win. He was not willing to rock the boat with his conservative base. He can use Palin on offense to make a run at women voters and on defense to blunt the populist attacks from the Democrats. And it shows he understands the need to generate enthusiasm and “newness†in his own campaign. In sum, Palin may prove to be the most exciting pick available to McCain.
The players on both tickets now are set, the battle lines are drawn, and in the weeks ahead Palin will give us a hint as to whether a Washington outsider, conservative reformer, and executive can boost McCain’s prospects. For now, Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief and getting ready for the fight of their lives.
| More from Jennifer Rubin
Stumble It!
August 29th, 2008 at 7:38 am
You forgot to mention the current investigation she’s under for possible abuse of her power along with the names Molly McCann, Michael Wooten, Walter Monegan, Frank Bailey…
This is not a government-big business corruption investigation here but a case of Palin trying to use her powers to have her sister’s ex husband (the two of them are engaged in a nasty custody battle) fired from his job as a state trooper at her sister’s bequest. When Wooten’s supervisor, Walter Monegan, refused to fire Wooten, Monegan himself was fired by Palin.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:56 am
The Wooten scandal sure puts a dent in any credibility for Palin as a true reformer of government corruption, but then neither party believes that The Constitution applies to divorced fathers, with VAWA Joe the cream of that crop.
So for the Dems we have:
Obama = always blame fathers
Biden = the word of the mothers is enough to convict fathers, and taking it global
And for the Repubs we have:
McCain = “tar baby”, i.e. divorce/custody too sticky to discuss
Palin = willing to forget her anti-corruption approach to help her sister screw over her ex-husband
No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look good for fathers, and so it goes for children. Same shit, different faces.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
This is a major mistake by McCain. This feminist is not qualified to be VP. One year as governor of Alaska with a population of 670,000 people, she was a mayor of some small town just prior.
McCain has made a feminist mayor of a small town his running mate. That’s like making a member of the KKK your running mate. He has lost my vote and my support.
Palin will be nothing but a destructive force against men and will be a major torn in McCain’s side from this day forward. She is a feminist Trojan horse hell bent on pushing the feminist agenda (or KKK agenda).
I believe George Bush will be greatly missed, God help us all.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
This was a token pick.
How sad.
McCain brags about his experience and speaks of Yobama’s lack of experience. And Palin is experienced? I think not.
This is an example of McCain’s judgement.
He is appealing to Hillary’s “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling”. Angry, miserable, fat women.
Both parties in fact are being led by a perceived need to satisfy female voters-yet again.
Yobama last night spoke of the need for fathers to take responsibility. Only men and fathers were to blame. Not women. That is a lie. Afterall, that was his experience. Yobama threw out that “75 cents for very dollar a man makes” cannard. We know that is a lie also.
Yobama and VAWA Joe will make life hard for men and fathers-based on lies. Lies to appeal to angry, fat, miserable women. Women who want the government as care-taker and entitler. Women who want what the Democrats want-bigger and more powerful government. Shared interests. Men will pay the taxes for much of this government expansion in size and power. And men and fathers will be the government’s main target.
Palin speaks today of Hillary’s “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling”. You know, that glass ceiling was put there by the patriarchy-by men-to keep women down. A lie.
Palin talks about the “old boys network”. Uh huh.
Palin was a PTA mom, a hockey mom, became Mayor of a small Alaskan town, then Governor of Alaska-and now a VP running mate. Looks like having to piss while sitting down is an advantage and not a disadvantsge. She is on a career fast track. Yet she complains.Yet she speaks about glass ceilings and old boys networks. Lies, lies, lies. She is more experienced and ready to take over for this old guy than say Pawlenty? Romney? I think not.
She was a token pick.
By McCain to get elected.
But not a pick based on what is good for the country.
This is McCains judgement.
Yobama and VAWA Joes appeal to radical feminists and manginas.
McCain and Palin appeal to chivalrists-men and women alike.
They all are chasing the angry, miserable, and fat female demographics.]
It will be pay-back time against men and fathers by either of these candidates and their VP choices.
The payback will be based on lies lies lies.
But they will surely satisfy angry, miserable, fat women.
It will get ugly for men and fathers no matter who is elected.
What a country.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:38 am
18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling, raining down a shower of jagged shards to shred Hilary’s dreams. (Thanks Doonesbury
)
Hey let’s not say that MRAs are anti-women. Here is a relatively unknown woman who has NOT sought the highest power position nor clawed her way across broken male bodies to grab power nor villified men, cried over trivia, lied like a Dickie Mint trim sheet, screamed at secret service agents, etc etc.
The fantastic talents for International affairs that have shown their faces over the past 15 years have made a complete cock-up and Obama is outranked by his VP in that regard: a no-experience racist who calls himself black when he could just as legitimately call himself white in charge and a deputy who’s idea of Americans and furriners is that American soldiers would have to hand over their police records and get the personal permission from a woman terrorist just to talk to her. One the other hand we have an old guy who has actually shot at the bad-guy furriners and a deputy who has all the communications and conflict resolution skills that women are famed for. And she shoots too ! What a back-up !
Looking good for McCain, it seems to me.
Give the lady the gun and send her to see the World leaders.
Alternatively, for all those who are still unsure, Vote #1 Amfortas.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
While I was in a sporting goods store in AK last month I told the guys behind the fishing counter that I wanted to learn how to fish, – clueless about that. I also asked the brightest one a question or two about plumbing and electricity in RV’s. As a joke, sort of, I said “I came to Alaska to ‘learn to be a man’ and the pot bellied soft guys laughed about that [For the record I can out shoot, out fight, out run, stronger than... 99% of the men I run into... that and army duty, hitch hiking cross country at 18, traveling the world... I am confident enough as a man to say such things and to not be afraid of women either.]
I was really impressed with Alaska … while following grizzlies with my wife, each of us with a camera in one hand, bear spray in the other… to visiting with people in cities… what impressed me as much as “nature” and “wildlife” was how damn tough and independent AK woman are. They make California men look like sissies. From one woman winning, five years in a row, the Mount Marathon run – up and down a mountain, sometimes bloody, in Seward… to the female artist who lives in a van during the summer but wears a gun on her hip because she likes her freedom and independence and takes care of herself… gave us some Caribu (sp) meat she had shot, cured. To a woman who got tired of her husband being the Cpt. on the boat so she got her own boat and took up sled dogs at age 40 plus… did the Iditarod -to the loan rider we watched approaching us down a deserted road, on her bike, and invited in for dinner [ She said “I always have the fantasy, after a few years of travel like this on a bike, weeks at a time, that someday some people in an RV will invite me in for a hot meal – and this is the first time that’s happened.” We meet guys from Italy a hundred miles later who were on bikes, needed water… she had left them behind. Other tough women were there too, running small businesses, not asking for a man or the government to give them money… cool.
I know,this possible VP seems – well, quaint in some ways compared to the harpies at N.O.W., and 180 degrees away from women on TV shows like “Sex and the City” … she seems what?… not “up to date” in some ways, – behind the curve. And yes, she “might” have gone after her sister’s husband – wouldn’t you?… family is thicker than politics. Some guy disappoints my sister, EVEN if she is wrong, I support her and would help her if I think she got the worst end of it… I don’t assume that to be so, but it might be. We ddn’t know that story fully, yet.
She is fearless and she is more likely to challenge feminists who claim women don’t get a fair deal to “stand on their own feet and stop whinning” and stop blaming men.
Or, maybe not. Let’s wait and see.
Any human who can do her work, have five kids, deal with a downs syndrome child and then not tell her kids she is up for VP keeping that secret… I have more respect for than either Obama or Biden… show boaters…WE, the PC types figure she must be wrong about drilling for oil… that remains to be seen. I am against it, save the animals, but I know that if we run out our soceity is screwed and until we have a replacement for oil… well, maybe drilling will help, jut a little…I think I will listen to her before I judge her harshly as some are doing. It’s easy to read a lot, blog a lot, but she is far about where most of us with actions rather than words.
Steven D.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Lone rider … not loan? smile – you fix the other typos as you see them. SD
August 30th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
SD, my good friend Percy tells me he has posted your comment on Antimisandry.com as an example of MRAs of standing who do not put a blanket condemnation on women in politics – or indeed the sound female strengths that can influence and lead in political issues. I agree with him.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the Main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!
Alaska is about as far West as one can get without becoming East.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:25 am
Amfortas, if you can find a decent Sheila down there to take the spot, I will relinquish what you’ve likely already promised to too many people anyway….YOUR vp spot.
Im glad someone got defensive. Look I have as many or more suspicions about women in that power seat as the next guy, but to become a reactionary where we see a woman come to power and like a lemming join the march to condemn her…EVEN if the other side does that to men, is just stupid.
Making a full time career out of seeing half empty glasses is holding me and likely lots of other potentially more active guys on the sidelines. Frankly, intellectual dishonesty , though we are all prone, is a disease, and when I read comments that, no matter what, the writer finds the anti-female angle, I offer you who do that even less credit than the bimbos who do it to men….because you should friggin know better!
Good post Steven!
September 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Yep. I pity the poor fool who shows up here because he really does hate women – I don’t mean some – I mean all women everywhere. FRM, and I assume MRM, has never been about that. We’re not – despite the opposition mud-slinging – the mirror image of the feminist movement. We exist, in part, because the feminist movement (and that’s not the same as all women everywhere) – with all its total hatred of all men everywhere got its way too many times. Despite the fact that we’d all rather be at a bbq with maybe a little softball on the side – somebody’s got to do it. Somebody has to fight for the return of civil law.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:36 am
I have yet to read a comment on this site that was hateful of women. I have read a plethora of posts that show complete and utter distain for feminism and feminists, and this is a good thing.
Feminists are both male and female, and just because a feminist hunts and goes fishing; it does not make them any less of a feminist. Just as hunting and fishing doesn’t make you a man. Get a clue, please!
Her self proclaimed agenda is to shake up the “establishmentâ€. Unless she is speaking of feminism, I would tend to believe she is speaking of something else.
I believe McCain will win the election and she will be a major thorn in his side. This feminist jumped over much more qualified men to get this position, as is the case more times than not in this feminized society. This is affirmative action at its worse.
Just as a racist (note the “ist†in racist) believes one race is superior to others and deserves special privileges, so does a feminist (note the “ist†in feminist).
Palin is a self proclaimed feminist.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’m trying to figure out who it is here that “hates all women” as well.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 am
The more I find out about Palin-the more I like. My guess however, is that she has a blind eye as far as the dishonesty and corruption of gender politics in America. I doubt she will be a reformer when it comes to family courts, anti-male legislation, and the general unfairness that America has towards men, fathers, boys.