Saturday
30Aug
What Does Palin Pick Tell Us About McCain?
Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 09:00Republican strategist Karl Rove said on Face The Nation Sunday that he expects presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama to choose a running mate based on political calculations, not the person's readiness for the job. "I think he's going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice," Rove said. "He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president."After the initial novelty wears off, the Palin choice is going to play out very badly indeed for Senator McCain. Once again he’s rolled the dice and placed a wildly reckless, long-shot gamble. Once again he’s opportunistically and cynically placed his personal ambitions over the nation’s best interest. The Mayor of Wasilla doesn’t belong a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and McCain knows it. He just doesn’t care.
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Reader Comments (3)
Matt Yglesias has a quite thought-provoking post up.
Both Obama and McCain have benefitted from friendlier-than-average press coverage (in ways, I’d argue, that haven’t much benefitted citizens and voters), but their respective campaigns achieved that favorable coverage in very different ways. Yglesias thinks McCain’s Palin pick took his campaign’s constant goal of “winning” each news cycle to such an extreme that it may ultimately wind up undermining and damaging his brand. What do you think?
I doubt it. Conservative like myself like Palin because she is a conservative, and we asked for her. Barring any devastating gaffes (like Obama and Biden are prone to make) or scandals, Palin is going to shine, and it's only going to make McCain look savvy for choosing her.
If McCain had taken the time to vet this woman properly by meeting her several times and looking into any potential problems thoroughly BEFORE announcing her, Sarge, I'd be inclined to agree with you,. As it stands, though, McCain's only reinforced the biggest concerns people have about him and sabotaged his own strongest points.