The NYT story today on how McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate is worth reading for many reasons, such as seeing how Lindsay Graham's pushing of Joe Lieberman for VP was squashed. But most of that is distraction. The important paragraph for us to remember and emphasize is this:
At the very least, the [Palin selection] process reflects Mr. McCain’s history of making fast, instinctive and sometimes risky decisions. "I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can," Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For." "Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."
Others here can fight John McCain on the issues; on another day I may join them. For me, one huge problem with John McCain is his character, his childish temperament. Few political decisions he's made show his character defect better than the Palin decision considered in light of the above paragraph.
John McCain felt thwarted, in not being able to choose his friend Joe Lieberman, and apparently petulant. He met Palin -- for only the second time in his life -- and had what seems to have been the first truly extensive conversation with her.
At 11 a.m. on Thursday, at the McCain vacation compound near Sedona, Ariz., Mr. McCain invited Ms. Palin to join him on the ticket. He hardly knew her, and she had virtually no foreign policy experience, but Ms. Palin was a "kindred spirit," a McCain adviser said. Mr. McCain was betting, the adviser said, that she would help him reclaim the mantle of maverick that he had lost this year.
And so he made one of his snap decisions, the kind about which he says he'll "live with the consequences without complaint." (Of course, the worst "consequences" -- Sarah Palin ascending to the Presidency as early as next year with no evidence understanding of social policy outside of Alaska and the Pentecostal Church -- will occur precisely if McCain hasn't lived to see them.) What kind of man does this?
A man who, with one large and obvious exception, has been protected from the consequences of his actions.
A man born into military royalty who got his preferred career assignment despite having finished in the bottom 1% of his class.
A man who crashed four planes with impunity before finally crashing in Vietnam.
A man who -- and I won't criticize his choice given his circumstances -- made propoganda films for the enemy and, unlike any Democrat who would have done the same thing, barely sees it mentioned during a run for President.
A man who broke up his first wife's marriage by having an affair with her and was a notorious serial womanizer in D.C. and elsewhere in the years after he returned to the U.S. -- and runs for President with the media hardly mentioning the above.
A man who dumped his crippled first wife, paid her off, and married the younger beer heiress with whom he was cheating, knowing that her family would finance his political career.
The man who arranged a deft escape from his being ensnared in the Savings and Loan scandal.
The man who arranged a deft cover-up, using the same political agents, when his wife was discovered to have committed drug felonies that would have destroyed anyone less well-connected, and is able to avoid media focus on his own role in the cover-up.
A man who seduced the press so effectively that he turned his own pandering about the South Carolina state flag into a testament to his own good character.
A man who, as the relevant Senate Committee chair charged with investigation, helped facilitate the cover-up of the Abramoff scandal -- and hardly ever sees his role publicly mentioned.
A man who, when credible evidence of a possible affair surfaced this year, didn't withstand withering inquiry by the National Enquirer, but instead saw the woman in question vanish from the airwaves.
A man who has bought off the press with access and free meals without most of the public realizing it.
A man who has made some of the most vicious, crude, and misogynist jokes noted by any contemporary politician and is able to get away with a mere insincere apology when challenged at all.
A man who angrily and impulsively called his wife a vulgar word that would shock most voters in front of reporters and sees almost no reminders of it in the national press.
A man whose gambling addiction -- at the fool's game of craps, at which he believes he can succeed by deploying lucky charms -- is possible only because his wife could bail him out if he ever got into real trouble.
A man who made foreign policy experience the central thrust of his attack on his opponent and then chose the least experienced running mate in modern times, a woman whose only foreign policy experience supposedly comes from living somewhere near Siberia.
UPDATE BOX: as a commenter notes below, I left out the most mind-boggling thing about his making this pick: he chose a candidate that he didn't even vet -- and yet the media doesn't emphasize that. This is why she's going through so much vetting by the blogs right now. I wonder: was Mike Brown vetted more carefully for the spot of FEMA Director than Sarah Palin was for the Vice-Presidency?
Consequences? The hallmark of John McCain's life is his ability to avoid consequences.
But the shoot-from-the-hip, don't-worry-God-will-provide process of making this decision wasn't even the worst of it. OK, he flies by gut instinct, because he knows in his gut that he is working with a net. But why did he made this decision?
He didn't make this hasty decision because he looked at Sarah Palin and saw a brilliant leader. He didn't even see a political soulmate -- in her priorities, she's a far cry from Joe Lieberman. No, what he saw was this:
McCain was betting ... that she would help him reclaim the mantle of maverick that he had lost this year.
This was the most important decision McCain has had to make this year -- especially given his advanced age as a cancer survivor -- and he made it on TRANSPARENTLY POLITICAL GROUNDS.
I've been speaking to voters on the phone. They get this. They hate it. TRANSPARENTLY POLITICAL GROUNDS. Not "national security grounds." TRANSPARENTLY POLITICAL GROUNDS.
He sacrificed the nation's security -- on a hasty, snap decision, knowing that his hasty decisions often lead to mistakes -- for a little prospective political gain. His justification is that "he can live with the conseuqneces." This narcissistic, obtuse, coddled-except-for-his-years-as-a-captive, vain man doesn't understand that the consequences of his decision aren't for him, but for the country.
But, hey -- he'll just blow on the dice and roll 'em. If he gets into trouble, someone will bail him out. Someone always does.
He's a man who takes pride in "[making decisions] as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can," as if the speed of most Presidential decisions matters more than their quality. He's competitive, all right, and it is easier to measure speed than sense.
What kind of man makes decisions the way John McCain does? A man who is protected from their consequences. [Added: But you can't fly the United States like you can an attack plane. If you crash the country, you don't get another chance.]
Much like George W. Bush, John S. McCain III thinks that he is living a charmed life. That's what allows him to make hasty decisions. He knows that often his "haste is a mistake" -- but he doesn't really care. Like George Bush, off to Paraguay next January, he's not the one who will have to live with the consequences. We are.