The above image is stolen from the Draft Sarah Palin For Vice-President Blog. I hope they don't mind.I don't like using this blog to make political statements. As I feel that is one thing the blogosphere has enough of. I would prefer to do other things with this space (and I intend to) like publish my science-fiction short stories, or compare my brother's top 50 books to my own, or write derogatory letters to Tim Burton. Instead I have found myself moved to write spontaneously about politics twice in the last 3 months, and as regular readers of this blog know anything that makes me write twice in three months must be really important. So I will share with you my reactions to the Republican nominee for the vice-presidency of the Uniter States of America. Warning: Half of the country will hate me after reading this.
Wow.
I mean. Wow.
So that's who you're going with Senator McCain? Sarah Palin? Are you sure? I'm just asking.
I just mean to say you had some other options. You could have had your pick of 49 of your fellow Senators, 199 members of the other House of Congress, any of the other 21 Republican governors eligible to assume the office of the presidency, any number of prominent Presidential Cabinet members both former and current, to say nothing of all the high profile Republican politicians who do not currently hold office but are still household names for politically active Americans. You could have even made history by having the first major ticket to feature someone crossing over from the opposing party. In short you had a lot of strong and viable options in front of you.
With all that in mind you went with someone who is pretty much unknown outside of her native state. You went with someone whose chief qualifications are governing a town with fewer than 9,000 residents, and a state with a smaller population than the islands of Fiji. You went with someone who is younger than your opponent and has fewer years serving in elected office than him -remember, you've repeatedly said this opponent doesn't have the experience to lead. You went with someone who in less than two years in a prominent office already has one noteworthy scandal to her name. You went with someone coming from a state where the Republican party is hip-deep in corruption scandals and the Democrats were able to rig the Republican primaries to pick the opponents they thought were softest, always good to see they'll have strong support at home. You went with someone who has no established credibility with voters on any issue, and who has in fact spoken in favor of your opponent on certain issues.
You could have picked someone who amplified your strengths. A serious veteran of government with strong foreign policy credentials, a military mindset, and a tough approach to the war on terror. Instead you chose someone with no foreign policy experience an no serious history of service either in uniform or in office. You could have picked someone who evened out the weaker areas of you resume, someone who would have assured moderates about things like the environment. Instead you went with someone who apparently thinks its okay to hunt endangered polar bears. You could have picked someone to reassure the social conservatives in your party that you are committed to their issues. Instead you picked someone who used her first veto as governor to block a ban on benefits for same-sex couples. You could have picked someone with a diverse and lengthy resume who clearly is prepared to handle the countless complex issues she would face in the White House. Instead you chose someone whose main occupation in life is working on oil and gas, at a time when you are seen as too closely tied to the oil and gas industry. You could have found someone who would help block your opponents 50-state strategy by picking someone from a traditionally Democrat state that was in play this election, or even better someone from a state your opponent has been campaigning hard to flip. Instead you chose someone from a state that was a virtual lock going into this election and that only has 3 electoral votes to offer. You could have picked someone who made a statement about what your campaign is about or what kind of presidency you intend to lead. Instead you chose a person who is one big question mark in the minds of voters that you will have to expend a lot of time and energy in the closing weeks of this campaign trying to answer.
The boldest running mate choices are the ones that project beyond the campaign and tell the voters something about your plans for office. Clinton chose Gore as a sign of moderation and of the "new Democrats" he intended to lead. Bush chose Cheney as a way of advertising the return of the old conservative guard to the White House. Kennedy chose Johnson to signal that he wasn't just a pretty face with a good speaking style; he was serious about getting the work down in Washington, and wanted a strong operative on his side. In your case the choice of Sarah Palin is transparent and uninspiring, because she clearly has no projected place in your presidency she is simply there for the campaign. Somewhere, somehow, some of your advisers have convinced you that all you need to win this election is draw down Obama's potential pool of voters. So you go after the only group in his base you know has any reason not to vote for him, those who have been extremely and peculiarly loyal to Senator Hillary Clinton. Its obvious you hope these voters (by the way, I am certain you have referred to most of these voters as "femi-nazis" at least once in private) are so focused on having a chance to vote for some woman, any woman, this fall that they will abandon their support of Sen. Clinton and the candidate she will be campaigning to help, and instead fall behind the only set of ovaries on the ballot this November. All she has to do is serve as a walking wedge issue among your opponent's base. You must truly believe that American voters are a very shallow, very simple people Senator McCain. That is a sad statement about you and your campaign.
I don't think much of what I was wrote about above really matters to you. It's clear that you don't really see this person as your running mate, so her stance on the issues doesn't matter to you. It's clear you don't seriously mean that this person is your top choice for vice-president, so her qualifications for office and value as a campaign asset don't matter to you. And I don't think you've really put much thought into the fact that this person would become the most powerful person in the world in the unfortunate event that you are elected and some tragic fate befalls you, so her basic character and essential leadership abilities don't matter to you. All that matters to you is that she has a pair of X-chromosones and a telegenic face. If that's the kind of respect you show this woman, than how do you expect any woman to treat your campaign seriously.
What's really sad about all of this is that your declaration of this choice comes at a time when it's become clear it won't fulfill it's intended purpose. The Democratic National Convention was a wild success, the message of strength and unity was clear. By the end of the week your campaign even seemed to be at a loss for words, in response to the powerful message the Democrats had sent. If there was a time to tear the Democratic party apart it must have been before this week. After the speeches by the Clintons, and by Senators Biden and Obama, the only true Democrats who still are off the reservation are too few and far between to matter. I even wonder if this is a sign that your campaign is grasping at straws. You were almost committed to going with a more traditional and understandable choice, until you saw how well the DNC went. Then you knew that any tradition Republican campaign would get killed this election, so you abandoned that tract and are now trying desperately to put the genie of Democratic party unity back in its bottle. You see a glimmer of hope in your walking wedge issue of a running mate, and that self-delusion is the clearest sign to me that you are unfit for the office you seek Senator McCain.
But it's not too late to change your mind. If you really want to handicap yourself like this when facing such a strong opponent, well, all I can say is that is mighty sporting of you Senator. On the other hand maybe you want to give this a little more thought.
So again I ask, is that who you're going with?
Really?
