So Sean and Nate at fivethrityeigth.com describe the Palin pick as a "risk" and a "gamble." So does the Wall Street Journal, in the Weekend Edition. So does everyone else who pays attention to this.
But while thinking of a way to approach this appropriately, without condescension toward women, and without attacking her for being a former beauty queen.
No, we need to go after this on the same angle that questions McCain’s allegiance to Bush, and on his decision to push for the war in Iraq, at the expense of catching bin Laden.
This is a question of his judgment, and his character. The other side of the coin is her judgment and her character. What in her history has prepared her to lead the largest economy? To negotiate with Putin?
The two questions we should ask, that really can’t be answered in any positive way, are:
- What does it say about McCain’s judgment that he asked Palin? That is the one asked in the front page story today. But the other half of that equation is:
- What does it say about Palin’s judgment that she accepted?
The ambition, the hubris, that allows her to think that her background qualifies her to be president is astonishing. This is not the movie "Dave." This is real life.
The Palin pick is a roll of the dice. It is a decision that a craps player makes when he is down to his last ten bucks, after losing ten grand earlier in the night—if he loses, it’s only ten bucks, but if he wins, he gets most everything back.
But as Albert Einstein said, "God does not play dice with the universe."
Let’s not let John McCain and Sarah Palin play dice with America