Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
McCain Makes News But did he choose the right running mate?by rtbohan
(libertarian)
Friday, August 29, 2008
It is no surprise that John McCain made his announcement of a running mate today. It will compete for front page space with Barack Obama's acceptance speech and spark interest and enthusiams going into next week's Republican Naional Convention.
Nolan Chart columnist E.J. Moosa, a McCain supporter, is enthusiastic about the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the be Republican candidate for vice President. You can read it here([link edited for length]).
My own take on it is that it is a wash as far as the contest with the Obama/Biden ticket is concerned. It certainly helps McCain ro make a splash today. It will shore up some of his support among Republicans who remain reluctant about him. And it is a move toawrd attracting unhappy supporters of Senator Clinton.
But if it helps McCain, It also benefits Obama by taking away some of the campaign themes that McCain wants to use--experience, knowledge of foreign affairs, readiness to serve as President if necessary.
I thought that Senator McCain's release of the "Passed Over" ad almost dictated the selection of a woman as running mate, although I wrongly assumed that it would be Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas. In choosing Governor Palin([link edited for length]) he may have made a bad choice. Governor Palin is certainly younger and better looking than Senator Hutchinson ( or Senator Biden, or Barack Obama or John McCain for that matter) and she is the first womon selected as a candidate for national office by the Republican Party. In this year, particulary, it is probably a good move to try to challenge the Democratic Party's hold on a majority of female voters. But since we are talking about the vice presidency, there remains the problem that the Republican Party is still almost a quarter of a century behind the Democrats in making this move.
Putting aside the sexist argument, it must be said that Governor Palin has some real strengths. The novelty of having a candidate for national office from Alaska, other than the eccentric former Alaskan, Mike Gravel, pretty much assures friendly treatment by the press, at least in the short term. And the selection of Governor Palin does help Senator McCain with some of the Republican base. After floating the name of the pro-choice (or pro-abortion, if you prefer) former Governor Tom Ridge, Senator McCain has chosen a running mate who is solidly pro-life (or anti-abortion) both as a personal matter and a policy matter. Given his own spotty record on the Second Amendment, he has chosen a running mate who is a stong supporter of the Second Amendment and an avid hunter. Like Senator Obama he has apparently chosen his running mate without the aim of securing aupport in the large states. Even if Governor Palin brings electoral help in Alaska and in Idaho, the state in which she was born and in which she attended college, these are states any Republican ticket has a good chance of carrying.
Governor Palin is forty-four, two years youger tha Barack Obama, and her addition to the ticket certainly prevents the Democrats from referring to the Republican Party as the grey-haired party. This may help McCain in attracting younger voters to support the ticket. The fact that she has combined a career in policitics with motherhood may attract a good many non-professional non-elitist women to the republicans.
But the selection of Governor Palin presents advantages to the Democrats as well as the Republicans. In the first place, the Governor has a lack of experiene which is striking in a candidate for Vice President. She has been Governor of Alaska for only a year, and before that she was mayor and city council member in a city with a population of under ten thousand. She has no experience in either politics or government at the national level. While there are those who feel that this lack of experience is not necessarily a drawback, it certainly limits the ability of the Republicans to harp on Obama's lack of experience as a grounds for voting for McCain. And it allows the Democrats to argue that her selection, while commendable on the grounds that it was not made on the basis of electoral vote calculations, also indicated a lack of consideration of what would happen should the Vice President become President. The idea of Joe Biden as a candidate for President did not create much enthusiasm anywheter, but Senator Biden at least brings to the office a thorough knowlege of how the government works and a reputation as one of the more intelligent, if not creative, members of the Senate. The Democrats can argue that the selection of Governor Palin shows a total disregard for the country in the event something should happen to a President McCain.
A second advantage to the Democrats is that the Governor is the product of a notoriously corrupt political organization. Governor Palin, it should be noted, made her reputation and won the governorship as a crusader against corruption in the Republican Party and the government of Alaska. But the Democrats are no doubt going to continue with their campaign theme of the "Culture of Corruption" they claim Republicans represent at every level of government.
Governo Palin won Republican primary in 2006 by campaigning against the corruption of the incumbent Republican Governor. But now the senior Republican Senator from Alaska has been indicted for corruption, and there are indications that the incumbent Representative from Alaska may be indicted on the same charge. Both members of Congress may have the charges dropped or secure acquittal. But if the Democrats want to talk about corruption, the current state of the Republican Party in Alaska certainly gives them a splendid example. Despite her record of fighting corruption, Governor Palin has not remained unscathed by the investigations. It is charged that she fired the state Commissioner ho runs the State police because he would not aid her personal vendetta against a former brother-in-law by firing him. This is an allegation, not a formal charge at this point, and the Governor says it is untrue. But the allegation has been made and there is no reason to believe that the Democrats will let it alone.
On the whole, then, Senator McCain's selection probably helps him with the Republican base, but it will help Senator Obama in November as much as it helps Senator McCain.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 2 thumbs so far
The views expressed in this
article are those of rtbohan only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. rtbohan is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
