Let me start by saying I couldn't be happier than John McCain has made such a colossal error in choosing Sarah Palin..... here is a slightly different take
After the collective punditry finally stops oohing over the McCain's VP choice of Sarah Palin, maybe they will come to realize what a true disaster this choice is on so many levels - whether McCain wins or not. Nah - I am giving them to much credit. Her looks, her youth and her solid "conservative" (aka known as anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-creationism) credentials far outweigh any thought into investigating whether this woman is actually qualified to have her hands on the buttons. Has anyone of them mentioned once that she has absolutely no known stance on foreign policy or health care? She has even said she hasn't thought about the most important issue facing this country today - Iraq. And she has also said on CNBC that she has no idea what the Vice President is supposed to do.
But no - as always the media is caught up in the celebrity of it all.
First, this selection has to be one of the biggest insult to women in American political history. I can just hear Karl Rove whispering into Steve Schmidt's ear [using these exact words] "you gotta take this broad Palin, she will shore up the Dobson base and we can also get the Hillary bimbos at the same time." It just goes to show that Rovian philosophy believes women are pretty stupid and will vote for anything with female genitalia. (Then again Darragh Murphy of PUMA is that stupid - her performance on Hardball with that sour punim was embarrassing. She is one angry, unpleasant person).
Even Republican Senator Kay Bailey "Big Hair" Hutchison could barely contain her dismay and gave the most tepid endorsement of her. "I don't know much about her, but I am sure she is nice." Wow - what an endorsement! When your leading Republican female senator is that excited, you know this was the right pick.
Everyone is comparing the Palin pick to Spiro Agnew (who resigned in disgrace when criminal charges were filed against him) or Dan Quayle (who went on to be even worse than his harshest critics could imagine).
With all the hype and (hopefully negative) criticism being tossed at the McPOW camp regarding this pick, I will take this one step further - will Sarah Palin be the next Thomas Eagleton?
The Thomas Eagleton Affair
It was obvious early on that George McGovern was not going to beat Richard Nixon in 1972. When all the big names in the Democratic party turned down the VP slot (like Ted Kennedy, Birch Bayh and Hubert Humphrey), McGovern tapped little-known Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton to be his running mate
Eagleton, like McGovern opposed the Vietnam War. He was selected on July 14 with virtually no vetting. Eagleton did not tell the McGovern campaign about his hospitalizations for depression, which included shock therapy treatments. Within days, the papers revealed them to a caught-off-guard campaign. Initially the McGovern people downplayed the story and said they were "1000% behind Eagleton." But the press (as always) was relentless and the story did not go away. By August 1st, 18 days after he was picked, the damage was done and Eagleton withdrew at McGovern's request. He was replaced by Sargent Shriver, Maria Shriver's father.
McGovern's handling of the controversy was an opening for the Republican campaign to raise serious questions about his judgment. McGovern went on to lose in one of the biggest landslides in American electoral history.
As a side note on Eagleton, Bob Novak (yes that Bob Novak) wrote in a April 1972 column that an unnamed Democratic senator had talked to him about McGovern. "The people don’t know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot," the Senator said. "Once middle America - Catholic middle America, in particular - finds this out, he’s dead." Novak's accusation stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion and acid." In July 2007, Novak revealed on Meet the Press that the unnamed senator was Thomas Eagleton. Talk about a train wreck for George McGovern. And poor vetting.
If the McCain campaign's goal was to grab the spotlight, change the news cycle, and more importantly dampen Obama's big night - it worked. And it worked brilliantly. Imagine using one of the most important decisions of your campaign just to blunt a speech. Doesn't the McCain campaign realize there are another 60+ days until the election and they have to actually live with this pick for all that time. And that this hail mary pass could come to backfire. I sure hope it does.
Not for nothing - before Friday's announcement McCain and Palin had met each other exactly twice - not much for the personal relationship huh? They have to spend the next 60+ days side-by-side and trying to convince people that because he has experience and was a POW, and because she knows big oil and has a vagina - that they are the bestest team for America. What if they don't really get along, or don't have any chemistry (can anyone recall Kerry-Edwards)? And can they really school her in 30 years of world history in 30 days? But thanks to our 'friends' in the media her debate with Biden is already being spun about how he will treat her rather than the issues. (Echoes of Hillary and Rick Lazio). And how will this hockey mom's ultra conservative views play with the soccer moms? Did anyone actually think the James Dobson crew (including the king dork himself) were going to vote for Obama? Did they really need to be shored up?
And finally, will the women of America, who are more engaged in the political process than ever open their mouths and collectively shout out - that they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. That GOP pandering to the lowest common intelligence denominator is incredibly insulting and won't work. As for Sarah Palin herself, what self-respecting woman would want to be part of a ticket/campaign that has absolutely no respect for women in general. That alone says tons about her character. She knows she is being used and just doesn't care. That says tons about Republicans.
I would say that after the inital afterglow wears off - the strategists will see this was a colossal mistake. I think there is a good shot that Palin does NOT make it to the election, that she will be excused from the ticket like Eagleton. But then again Republicans are notorious for never admitting they make a mistake (see Bush, George W.).
They will just blame Clinton - only this time it will be Hillary's fault.