I think McCain may have dashed his chances of winning with his VP pick. Who could McCain have chosen from? Lieberman, Romney, Huckabee, heavens even our own Jon Huntsman Jr. all of whom have more popularity and better political resumes. Who does he choose? An 18 month governor of Alaska whose only other experience is that of Mayor of Wasilla Alaska. Wait a minute, maybe I shouldn't dismiss it that soon what else is on her resume?
Alaska State High School Girls Basketball team championship team
Miss Wasilla (also Miss Congeniality)
1st Runner up in Miss Alaska pageant
BS in Journalism (Minor in Politics -- I assume Political Science) -- University of Idaho
Sports Broadcaster
Commercial Fishing with Husband
That's it! So, McCain chose a Soccer Mom (oh sorry a "Hockey" Mom). I'm sorry, what the He@# is he thinking? McCain's campaign has been using as one of its big negative campaign points that Obama lacks experience, and McCain proposes to put an individual with less than impressive education, work experience, and even political experience one heartbeat away from the presidency. At least Barack Obama has an impressive resume despite his lacking national political experience, and his political experience I would safely assume, with all due respect, blows her experience out of the water.
In a campaign that is this tight, I think his pick is either an indication of McCain's arrogance or desperation. The fact the she is a woman may sway some moderate women voters, although her position on abortion negates her ability to sway the feminist vote. It is true that BushI successfully ran with an unknown on his ticket, but McCain needs to remember George Sr. was riding the coattails of Ronald Reagan, the end of (what may soon be called) Cold War I, and a strong economy, Bush Sr. would have had to have been caught with a prostitute to have lost the 1988 election. McCain on the other hand is running from the coattails of Bush II, a possibly reignited cold war, high inflation, decreasing individual incomes, and a less that stellar economy -- he is hardly in the same position of BushI. McCain needed a heavyweight boxer and he chose a girls B-Ball player (no offense to Girls B-Ball)
It sounds as though Mrs. Palin has the record of a reformer in the great state of Alaska, she has the conservative views necessary to please the evangelicals, she appears to be somewhat of a maverick which fits well with McCain, and the fact that she is female may help sway more Hillary voters. However, unless Mrs. Palin turns out to be an extraordinarily eloquent orator and debater I have little hope that McCain will pull off a "W" come November.
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4 comments:
I'm always interested to learn what people think about the roles of the federal government and state governments and the various players at those levels. Why do you conclude that Obama's (or Mitt's or Huntsman's) experience is superior to Palin's?
I'm not sure about your "more popularity" claim.
A year ago I discovered a group pushing to get Palin selected as the VP on the Republican ticket.
Huntsman has very high approval ratings in Utah (who knows why) but I don't see that he has any popularity outside our state. Palin has an 84% approval rating in her home state besides that following I mentioned before so she's at least as popular as Huntsman.
Huckabee has his niche following, Lieberman has no cohesive following, and Romney has as many people opposing him as cheering him on.
I'm not trying to argue that she's a perfect pick, but you claim to have named four people with better resumes and more popularity. They might all have better resumes (although I'm not sure Lieberman really does), but none of them has more popularity than Palin.
I'll bite, and argue using your interpretations, which I disagree with.
So what's wrong with getting the "soccer mom" to do it? I work at the state level with several marvelous women who have a breadth of experience in state policy issues. In each case, I find them amazingly adept at what they do; I suspect it's because they care more than the average person. What do they list as their occupation? Variously, nurse, dairy farmer, and homemaker. And they feel unjustly denigrated by those ignorant to the work they do who scoff at the title "homemaker."
Yes, you're right that the juxtaposition of both the "experience" and "age" attack vectors is mildly humorous. But then so was this line: "At least Barack Obama has an impressive resume despite his lacking national political experience, ..."
Palin is a slam dunk. She rebuts every single criticism made against McCain.
She's the most "average American" of anyone in this race. She's the most conservative of anyone in this race. She's the most independent of anyone in this race. She's young, she's a woman, she's strong-willed, outspoken, and has five kids- one of whom is being deployed to Iraq next month and another just born with disabilities. There is storyline after storyline here.
She waaaaaay energizes the Republican party more than any other of the VP candidates.
And it'll be loads of fun watching Barack "Community Organizer" Obama try to attack her on experience.
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