Mercy Killing...Why McCain Chose Palin....

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Sunday August 31, 2008 · 7:07 AM PDT

2008/08/31 · 07:07

With what is turning out to be the greatest political miscalculation in the history of presidential elections, John McCain has pretty much handed the presidency to Barack Obama. His unfathomable choice of political neophyte Sarah Palin to be his running mate has left even many in his own party stunned and dismayed.

In choosing the inexperienced untested less than two year governor of the sparsely populated state of Alaska, McCain succeeded in destroying his single challenge he had to Senator Obama's candidacy. It seems to be either an act of unbridled political hubris on his part or an act of political euthanasia...killing his campaign before the pain grows worse. I am going to go with the euthanasia act.

It also seems to be the culmination of a long series of gaffes, mis-speakings, memory lapses, and errors of facts that have plagued his campaign since winning the nomination. Day by day, McCain seems less and less able to cope with the stresses and demands of the long hard fight to win the presidency. This is manifesting itself in an ever increasing tendency on his part to dig in his heels and resist the advice and counsel of his own party. He appears to be a man trapped in a prison of his own making this time. And as questions about his age-related mental and physical abilities mount, so does the level of his churlishness and barely controlled anger.

The self-destructive act of choosing someone as unprepared for the vice-presidency let alone the presidency reveals the lingering effects of his time spent as a prisoner of war. That experience which he has used at every opportunity during the course of the campaign regardless of the context in which it is used now seems to be exerting a negative effect on his outlook for success. The anger and bitterness engendered by his sense of abandonment by the very people he was fighting for are coming to the fore as he perceives that once again he is being abandoned by his fellow Americans who can not see him as the next president. Eventually, one reaches the point of despair. And with despair comes the conscious or unconscious desire to end it all, metaphorically speaking in this case.

The act of choosing Sarah Palin was McCain's act of political self-immolation.

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