More Thoughts on Sarah Palin
Tony posted an interesting comment in response to my post yesterday. While I had said that Sarah Palin was a totally uninteresting pick, Tony disagreed. He said that in fact Palin was a very interesting choice, as she was completely unknown. McCain has taken a huge risk in selecting her to be “just a heartbeat away” from the office of the president (as Paul Begala said).
When I thought about that more, I realized that Tony is right. In terms of scrutinizing McCain, Palin is an exceptionally interesting choice. I compare this choice to Bush’s choice of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court. That choice came out of nowhere, and no one was particularly excited about it. Republicans didn’t know anything about her and were worried she might agree that women have rights. Democrats didn’t know anything about her and were worried that she wasn’t qualified to serve. In the end, she withdrew her nomination.
I don’t suspect that something similar will happen in this race, but it has happened before. Some may recall that Thomas Eagleton was McGovern’s running mate in 1972 against Nixon. He withdrew from the race after news came out that he had undergone treatment for depression (as if that made him unqualified). Sarah Palin can expect to face similar scrutiny, and while I hope that nothing malicious happens to her, she has five young children (the oldest is 18). This could put a lot of pressure on her family. It’s something every candidate has to consider, but for Obama and Palin, the pressures on family are greater than for McCain (his children are older, not that I really know how old they are as we never see them) and Biden.
Palin has also been a beauty pageant contestant (celebrity), is a staunch opponent of women’s rights (idiot), and has significantly less experience and education than Obama (not ready to lead). I doubt she can bring much excitement to the campaign, either. Bush nominated Miers, thinking that a woman should replace Sandra Day O’Connor. McCain picked Palin hoping to woo some disgruntled Clinton voters (and closet racists – see the section of this article on Aversive Racism). In both cases, the nominee is questionably qualified. We will have to wait and see if the scenarios will the same outcome.
Also, I’ve seen a lot of Google searches on Todd Palin and Infidelity. Not sure what all that is about…
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