Something Doesn’t Fit

John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick. What you need to know about her is that she is a woman. She has been governor for less than two years. Prior to that she was mayor of a town in Alaska of less than 10,000 people.

A candidate who is running on his experience picks a woman with no foreign policy experience and no national political experience to become the Vice President of the United States. He picks a woman who is currently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power. He picks a woman who he had only met once prior to this month.

Something doesn’t fit.

It is improbable that the McCain campaign actually believes that putting a very right-wing woman who practically no one outside Alaska had heard of on the ticket will actually win them enough independent and Democratic women’s votes to put them over the top. This is a pick designed to lose an election.

The first big presidential decision any candidate makes is choosing his running mate. It is a test of the candidate’s judgment. In this case, McCain appears to have chosen his running mate on a whim. He picked someone he had only met once, could not possibly have known much about, and who until late last month herself showed a curious lack of knowledge about the office she now seeks. Something was dangerously lacking in the vetting process. It reveals more about McCain’s lack of interest than about his judgment. It seems to me that McCain didn’t care much about who he picked, how much he knew about her, and what the impact would be of putting such a person a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States.

With this vice presidential pick – more so with how the pick was made rather than who was picked – John McCain has displayed a dangerous lack of interest in the business of governing. A disinterested president is a president who does not get the opportunity to exercise his judgment. A disinterested president presides over a presidency of neglect. This neglect manifests itself in moments of crises such as Hurricane Katrina. We cannot afford another presidency of neglect.

The big story today is about the inexperience of Sarah Palin. I believe the more important story – the one that the American people must come to grips with between now and November – is John McCain’s lack of interest in the heavy lifting of the presidency, and the risks inherent in such neglect.

 

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8 Responses to Something Doesn’t Fit

  1. Robster says:

    Personally, I wonder if maybe he knows he’s going to lose and he’s just interested in making history for history’s sake. Or perhaps he doesn’t want to ruin the careers or Romney, Lieberman, etc.? Who knows. I’m just looking forward to the debates.

  2. Ingrid says:

    Orrr…nobody else was willing to join him..

    Ingrid

  3. Ingrid says:

    Orrr…nobody else was willing to join him..

    Ingrid

  4. lyndel says:

    Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the village of Wasilla twice in the 1990’s. At the time of the US census of 2000, the population of Wasilla was only 5469.
    http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=42

  5. Mash says:

    Hi Ingrid, I think it has become obvious over the weekend that McCain did not vet his VP pick. Now, we are all about to take a roll in the mud. The general election just became the Jerry Springer Show.

  6. Cujo359 says:

    For McCain, given the people he needs to appeal to, this is probably not a bad choice. It’s a bad choice for the country, but then, so is McCain. Clearly that didn’t stop a portion of the electorate from voting for him.

    She has the sort of simplistic beliefs that a lot of people in America gravitate towards, and she can deliver that simplistic message with the fervor of belief. She’d have probably made a good video preacher, but instead she chose politics.

    Don’t make the mistake of thinking that McCain is giving up or doesn’t know what he’s doing. He does. He’s been at odds with the religious right for a long time, and it’s clear that he needs to join them if he has any chance of winning.

    No one else is stupid enough to vote for him in the kind of numbers he needs.

  7. Anthony Johnson says:

    I am appalled that Governor Palin has accepted the nomination of VP. She has five kids. My mother sacrificed everything for me so that me and my brothers and sisters could have the love, social skills and other life tools that we needed to go out into the world. 

She is a mother of a “newborn” child with Down’s syndrome! As a parent and even more as a mother I would want to know that the person who was in the office of the White House made sacrifices for their children. I believe that this is outright neglect. If she was any ordinary white, black, or Latino woman with five kids, one of whom was 17 and pregnant, she was be morally and ethically judged and ridiculed. But, because she is white, rich, privileged and a Republican, she is being praised and viewed as someone whom American woman can “relate to”. 

In America we often praise women for their moral and fundamental judgments, for their incredible sacrifices for the their children, and to do what Palin is doing (accepting the nomination) demoralizes what all women should have, undying and unconditional love for their children. If her lack of focus on her family has ultimately resulted in an unwanted pregnancy for her under aged daughter, one might be forced to ask, what then might be in store for her disabled newborn? I believe that many Republicans often shift the responsibility of raising their children to others (i.e. grandparents, family members, nanny’s) not because they have to sacrifice for them or work hard but often because they would rather keep up “appearances” than raise their children properly themselves. ” Oh Ms. Minnie has the kids, she’s a charming little black woman” or “Oh I sent Johnny up to Boarding School, he’s out of control.” 

All this, not to mention, is she really prepared to step in and be the next President of the United States? I think that the answer is obvious.

  8. Mash says:

    Cujo, I think it is becoming clear that this was a whimsical pick. Sometimes, people do stupid things. This may be one of those times.

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