What exactly does one say about the Palin pick?
The pros of the pick? While I’m still not convinced the Hillary ladies are satisfied with just any politician who has a vagina, I do think Palin could mobilize otherwise disinterested conservatives, women chief among them. She’s pro-union, another heretofore unrealized metric for Republicans, and her husband’s got the manly-man sport dude thing down. I bet the McCain crowd also thinks she’d neutralize the attack dog in Biden, who I assume will still go after her with equal vehemence, but could potentially come off looking like a jerk in doing so.
Also, the VPILF factor. Is she about to tear off the glasses and let loose the uptwist?
The cons? The commander-in-chief test comes to mind. If this altogether arcane gamble pays off Palin would be one heartbeat — one incredibly faint, irregular heartbeat — away from being President. As Gail Collins said in the NYTimes this morning,
McCain does not believe in pandering to identity politics. He was looking for someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism, the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his foot!
The obvious choice was Palin, the governor of Alaska, whose guard stands as our last best defense against possible attack by the resurgent Russian menace across the Bering Strait.
Another con — her policies. Pro-creationism, anti-taxes, anti-choice even in cases of rape and incest, pro-drilling, pro-war, anti-polar bear. I’m slightly afraid to learn more. So much for the appeal to the mushy middle or McCain’s flirtation with progressive ideas.
Also significant is that the McCain folks can’t seem to articulate a good reason for chosing Palin. All we’ve heard from McCain is that she’s not from Washington and has a compelling persona. From their appearance on stage together, I didn’t get the impression that the two had ever even met.
To me this choice seems almost silly in its reliance on identity politics. Say what you want about the identity politics the Dems have been playing, at least we spent over a year testing and probing Hillary and Obama, making them jump through hoops before becoming convinced that there was some substance behind the glam. But this choice implies that McCain isn’t even taking the governing that would follow the elction seriously.
All that being said, I’m not sure if Palin will help McCain or Obama more. I’ve learned not to underestimate Republicans’ tendency to absolutley cream their pants over the cowboy character type.
