John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his running mate may turn out to be a stroke of pure pragmatic genius. The gender thing, the performer thing, the Christian conservative-base thing, the energy-state thing.
And, in a very convoluted and calculated way, the experience thing.
The 44-year-old doesn’t have a lot, notably none in foreign policy. In an increasingly perilous world, with the country at war, that would normally be a deal-breaker. Actually, it would be unthinkable. But nothing is unthinkable in this election.
But the little experience she does have is of the executive variety. Granted, the state of Alaska has fewer people than Kathy Castor’s congressional district, and she was mayor of a town with the population of Hyde Park Village, but she did work with budgets and bureaucrats and buck-stops-here scenarios.
But in an ironic fashion, her gossamer resume and lack of international gravitas seem part of a perverse strategy: The very mention of experiential credentials prompts reminders of Barack Obama’s vulnerable downside. Only he’s at the TOP of a ticket, and presidential elections are ultimately won by the — presidential candidate. Recall that not even Dan Quayle, who was “no Jack Kennedy” among other things, could cost George H.W. Bush the 1988 election.
However it all shakes out, including Palin’s Oct. 2 vice presidential debate with Democratic counterpart Joe Biden, this much seems evident:
*The selection of Palin is a roll of the dice, because McCain felt he had to. This isn’t so much the singular choice of a change-agent “maverick,” which McCain hasn’t been since 2000, but a bottom-line, political gambit. Palin is an attractive, conservative, feisty female with a reputation as a special-interests bête noire.
*The choice of someone otherwise not qualified to succeed the oldest man ever elected president doesn’t reflect well on McCain’s first “presidential” decision – nor the vetting process that he is answerable for. This was no time for seat-of-the-pantsuit decision-making.
*Everybody has a past – and nobody looks good when others cherry pick it for blunders, lapses and indiscretions. Some items, like Palin’s husband’s 20-year-old DUI are utterly irrelevant. Others, such as Palin being for the “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it and hiring a lobbying firm to secure some $27 million in federal earmarks for her town (Wasilla) of 6,500, are pertinent. Especially for someone being lionized as a compatriot crusader against wasteful federal spending.
*And then there is Palin’s pregnant, 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. It’s a family embarrassment – and crucible. And it’s brutally ironic for a candidate-mom who preaches abstinence-only education and is billed as an avatar of family values. And it should be none of our business.
Barack Obama’s response was appropriate.
“I think people’s families are off-limits,” he said. “People’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.”
One final thing. This much seems likely:
*For a man who took one for Team America in Hanoi, John McCain couldn’t countenance being perceived as being on the wrong side of the culmination of the ultimate American dream: the ascendance of a black man to the presidency. He resented any intimation that he was the heavy against history.
*Now, with Palin on the ticket, McCain can make history too by making her story part of his story. Call it Sarahdipity.
And for American politics, it’s a chapter like no other.