What was he thinking?
The he I'm refering to, of course, is John McCain. Now, I'm sure you know I'm a big commie, pinko liberal, and wouldn't vote for a Republican even if you had a gun to my head, but I felt like weighing in on this whole mess.
To be fair, from a political perspective, the choice of Sarah Palin as VP would seem a smart one. Her political leanings appeal to the very conservative base of the party, strongly pro-life, social conservative, all the things McCain is not. HOWEVER, you really gotta question McCain's judgement here.
I went back and forth with a stauchly conservative (and PhD earning) Navy pal of mine and we had some common ground. He stated her lack of experience was no greater than Obama, and she's only the VP candidate. I'll be the first to admit I think Obama is not experienced enough in the national scene. And that she makes a good balance to the ticket (young energetic speaker VP of old guy compared to young energetic speaker with old guy VP, his point). But here's where I got a problem.
McCain put her on the ticket, first and foremost, to try and grab the PUMA crowd (see Jennyjinx's blog for a lot on PUMA's) and pull in the "female" vote. Somehow, I don't think many disaffected Hillary voters are suddenly going to switch to McCain because his VP has a vagina. It's such a blatant ploy it's almost pathetic.
I also really question his judgement on the pick. Only a couple of days and already you've got potential scandals around her pregnant daughter, people she fired while governor, and pork barrel projects. And McCain said he knew all of this stuff. And he still picked her to be VP? Is he crazy? Or just stupid? They showed delegates at the convention trying to put a positive spin on it all but it was obvious rationalizations for what they felt was a confusing, if downright dumb, pick. If he wanted to make a really controversial choice that might have paid dividends, he should have picked Mike Huckabee. THAT would have been brave.
The most amusing thing I saw today the McCain campaign should probably categorize under "Least Helpful Endorsement Ever". It seems Ms. Palin's daughter got some baby clothes and sympathetic support from, wait for it.......Jamie Lynne Spears! Now there's an endorsement that should go really far. Sarah Palin is as good a mom as the Spears matriarch! And I think I read that Lindsay Lohan also weighed in on her side. With friends like those, who needs a media conspiracy.
Even though I haven't really been paying attention to the conventions, I may watch tonight to see if this Palin gal can actually speak. At a minimum, she's more lively that McCain. But then again, my 18 year old cat is livlier than McCain.
To be fair, from a political perspective, the choice of Sarah Palin as VP would seem a smart one. Her political leanings appeal to the very conservative base of the party, strongly pro-life, social conservative, all the things McCain is not. HOWEVER, you really gotta question McCain's judgement here.
I went back and forth with a stauchly conservative (and PhD earning) Navy pal of mine and we had some common ground. He stated her lack of experience was no greater than Obama, and she's only the VP candidate. I'll be the first to admit I think Obama is not experienced enough in the national scene. And that she makes a good balance to the ticket (young energetic speaker VP of old guy compared to young energetic speaker with old guy VP, his point). But here's where I got a problem.
McCain put her on the ticket, first and foremost, to try and grab the PUMA crowd (see Jennyjinx's blog for a lot on PUMA's) and pull in the "female" vote. Somehow, I don't think many disaffected Hillary voters are suddenly going to switch to McCain because his VP has a vagina. It's such a blatant ploy it's almost pathetic.
I also really question his judgement on the pick. Only a couple of days and already you've got potential scandals around her pregnant daughter, people she fired while governor, and pork barrel projects. And McCain said he knew all of this stuff. And he still picked her to be VP? Is he crazy? Or just stupid? They showed delegates at the convention trying to put a positive spin on it all but it was obvious rationalizations for what they felt was a confusing, if downright dumb, pick. If he wanted to make a really controversial choice that might have paid dividends, he should have picked Mike Huckabee. THAT would have been brave.
The most amusing thing I saw today the McCain campaign should probably categorize under "Least Helpful Endorsement Ever". It seems Ms. Palin's daughter got some baby clothes and sympathetic support from, wait for it.......Jamie Lynne Spears! Now there's an endorsement that should go really far. Sarah Palin is as good a mom as the Spears matriarch! And I think I read that Lindsay Lohan also weighed in on her side. With friends like those, who needs a media conspiracy.
Even though I haven't really been paying attention to the conventions, I may watch tonight to see if this Palin gal can actually speak. At a minimum, she's more lively that McCain. But then again, my 18 year old cat is livlier than McCain.
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