When I learned of McCain’s choice for a VP candidate, and the little that was known about her, I was stunned by McCain’s seeming ineptitude.
I first wrote about Palin and her leadership of a town called Wasilla, a town not much larger than Woodstock, on September 3rd 2008 (see article for source). The turnout that elected Palin to her second election as Mayor was about half of Woodstock’s turnout in 1999 and before her three terms as Mayor she was an activist on the P.T.A. Our towns are similar in this way also as we have an active PTO that is willing to step forward to defend our school system.
Palin won the mayorship of Wasilla using an anti-abortion platform which is almost unheard of in small town politics (perhaps Ms. Wholean should try this in plotting her campaign this fall). She won the mayorship by a majority but alienated many with “polarizing single-mindedness”. She ran a town that had an operating budget of $6 million in 2001-02 (I believe that the State of Alaska pays for all education). She had the practice both as mayor and as governor of firing government employees that had supported her opposition. I’m sure Alan Walker would never consider doing this (if he knew who they were), but Ms. Wholean made it clear that she would attack any who were not on her side (remember her edict in the Town Hall that required her approval of any out-going emails?). In Palin’s case she instituted an edict that no employee could talk to the media without her approval. She finished as a mayor in 2002.
To bring her career timeline up to date, Palin unsuccessfully ran for Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor in 2002 and she was elected Governor in 2006 and inaugurated on Dec. 6th, the youngest governor ever elected by a state at the age of 42. When McCain selected Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate, she had served less than two years (21 months) as Governor of Alaska. She had just had her 5th child in the spring of 2008, and her high school-age daughter was pregnant out of wedlock.
Before he picked Palin as his running mate, other possible choices were Joe Lieberman (longtime Senator from CT, but a Democrat), Mitt Romney (former Governor of MA, 2008 Presidential candidate), Charlie Frist (Gov. of Florida, 2002 to the present), Rudy Giuliani (former Mayor of NY, 2008 presidential candidate), and several others with strong political track records.
If McCain felt committed to naming a female as his running mate it would have been hard to find one among the ranks of Republican females currently in high office. Among the women Governors there were only 3 besides Palin in Jodi Rell, Brewer (AR), and Lingle (HI). Of the 16 women who are Senators, only 5 were Republicans, perhaps most notably Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), but these also included Olympia Snow (ME) who has sided with Democrats on key votes, Elizabeth Dole who was on the way out, and relatively unknown Senators, Collins (Maine) and Murkowshi (Alaska). Among the 79 women Congressmen only 20 are Republican and all were relatively unknown with the possible exception of Ann Coulter-like Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. So Republican’s by not promoting election of women gave McCain few options among women.
This article is not about Palin’s gaffes and inexperience. Read today’s NYTimes article on her self generated problems since November to understand her inadequacies. I believe she did the right thing by resigning for the sake of her family and to make some money. I don’t hold this against her one bit.
I think what McCain’s choice of Palin shows is his ineptitude in making important decisions – in this case the most important decision of his campaign; his foolish choice of Palin whose high point in the campaign was when she barked out the hockeymom joke. If this is the best the Republican VP could do, the national Republican party has sunk to a new low. Who knows, if Palin had turned him down then McCain may have chosen South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford, who was also under consideration and accelerated his downfall.
Put yourself in the minds of Lieberman, Romney, Frist, and Guiliani and any of the other VP prospects mentioned above. In their private thoughts I’m sure they were dismayed and perplexed by the choice of Palin over them. But as far as I can tell, they never let this be known. They probably felt inner guilt for even having those thoughts. Likewise most Democrats were careful not to express their inner thoughts as well which were probably the same as Lieberman, Romney, Frist, and Guiliani. For once leading Democrats and Republicans shared the same disbelief.
What McCain did in making the choice of Palin is to undermine his candidacy irrevocably - with just one frivolous decision. Just think about it. What would the public perception of McCain have been in the waning weeks of October and early November had he chosen Romney or Frist? I think the voters did not consider McCain to be responsible for the economic crash that was in progress, but by choosing Palin it was evident to the swing voters and leading Republicans like Colin Powell that McCain deserved a no confidence non-vote. By contrast, soon to be President Obama made all the right moves in the last two months.
I don’t understand this article one bit. How is this opinion any different from Taxpayer ragging on Liberal Democrats using the broad strokes that he does? I guess we’re all guilty of using broad strokes and speculation at one time or another.
Palin’s two years (give or take) is about comparable to the amount of time that Obama actively served in the Senate (give or take) since he was out on the campaign trail for nearly two years. That argument’s a wash to me.
As far as bringing her career timeline up to date…since when is giving birth to a child or being the parent of a pregnant and unmarried teen considered part of one’s resume?
I guess you’d have to ask McCain what went into the process of his running mate decision. If we are presuming for the sake of the above article that he preferred a female, then that lets out Lieberman, Romney, Frist, Giuliani, or any other male. No need for them to feel badly about it if they weren’t of the gender McCain was going for. As far as the remainder of his possible choices, you said there were 4 (including Palin) among female Rep. Governors, 5 female Rep. Senators, and 20 female Rep. Representatives. 29 choices may be nothing compared to what the Dems have on their side, in terms of sheer numbers, but it’s plenty of people to fully run through a thorough vetting process. I’m not under the impression that was done though. Before McCain chose her, I had never heard of Palin and I’m not sure many others had either, but for Alaska residents and hard-core consumers of all things political. That tells me that being unknown was not something that seemed to trouble McCain when he made his choice, so that shouldn’t have prevented any of the other unknowns from being vetted and considered.
I agree with you that Palin was not the best choice of running mate. The thing that I like about her happens to be the very same thing that I dislike about her because it’s a double-edged sword. I like that she came onto the national scene as a political outsider (in comparison to those who are Washington mainstays and experienced on the national scene). However, I dislike that she seems to lack the polish of an experienced politician. Too bad there isn’t someway for a politician to gain experience but not compromise their core values. As it stands now, the whole system is broken down and corrupted by money. Elections are now bought and sold by PAC’s and elected candidates are held hostage by the favors they owe the groups who got them elected. This is the case for both parties, speaking nationally now. I could never join a political party given the current MOS of both of them. We need some serious campaign reform in this country if we are to see good solid choices of candidates in the future. Until then, it will be a continuum of “lesser of two evils” choices, as it has been up to this point.
Well,Newcomer, I dislike the fact the she is shallow, uneducated and uncurious.
As far as being mother of a pregnant teenager, that is only relevant to the extent it illustrates her hypocrisy.
Like Sarah Palin, is Ms. Sotomayor a symbolic nominee or is she really the best person for the job?
Tax, We need diversity on the Supreme Court so Sotomayor is a good choice.
Newcomer, Read the NYTimes article. But the main point was whatever good things you can say about Palin, her choice was a monumental blunder not only in my view but also in the minds of many Republicans. More than anything else, this decision undermined McCain’s candidacy. There’s no broad brush here (pardon the pun
).
Tax-
Sotamyer is smart and well educated. Palin is neither
John,
I read the Times article, but I can’t say I’m all in with your conclusion that it was the choice of Palin that doomed McCain’s candidacy. After her intial selection and up until the Katie Couric interview, I thought Palin was doing fine. The Couric interview raised concerns for me. I don’t consider it a trick/gotcha question to ask someone which newspapers they read to keep up with current affairs (my phrasing – I forget the exact words Couric used in her question). After that, there were not many instances where she came off well in my opinion; not even in the Fox News interviews. I thought she did a decent job during the V.P. debate with Biden. She didn’t score a TKO, but she didn’t come off looking foolish either. Her stump speech (and McCain’s for that matter) was the same thing over and over though. Neither of them ad-libbed much. That’s an element that I thought was lacking as there was much to discuss in those final days. I think McCain could have made a better choice than he did and I blame whomever on his team was supposed to vet his choices. I don’t think they checked into Palin deeply enough and I would wager a guess that they didn’t vet enough other female options thoroughly enough to allow him a better pool to choose from. Nevertheless, they act at his direction so he should have demanded more from his vetting team.
For me, the death knell for McCain was when he made the big fuss over going back to D.C. for the economic debate, President Bush cuts both McCain and Obama in on the meeting, and McCain caves and votes for the megabailout. All that time listening to him talk about fiscal responsibility and he votes for that stupid thing. THAT’s when the tide turned against him, in my opinion. I don’t think Palin helped. She was supposed to cement his base but instead she seems to have polarized it. I just don’t think his candidacy rose and fell on her. If that were the case, Biden should have done equal damage to Obama. I couldn’t imagine Palin running this country. I don’t want to see Biden do it either.
John,
Diversity has no place in a court and should play no role in interpreting law.
In the words of Ms. Sotomayor: “It left an impression that life experience commanded a result in a case but that’s clearly not what I do as a judge.”
She goes on to say:
“I want to say up front, unequivocally and without doubt, I do not believe that any ethnic racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judging,” Sotomayor said. “I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experience.”
So it seems Ms. Sotomayor does not believe that her diversity should or does play a role in her legal decisions.
So, let me ask again, while Ms.Sotomayor may be “a good choice”, is she the best choice?
Or, like John McCain’s choice in picking Sarah Palin for VP, is Obama choosing Ms. Sotomayor for diversity sake and its inherent political advantages?
Just wondering.
Newc, I have to admit that McCain’s behavior during the economic debate made him look even worse. The concern around Palin’s qualifications and McCain erratic behavior regarding the bailout were like a one-two punch. In the waning weeks of the campaign, I think the spectre of Palin as VP, given McCain’s health questions and age, became more paramount in the minds of voters while Obama exuded confidence and charisma. This is the way I see it.
John is right. McCain was the wrong choice at the wrong time.
I just love this kind of “give and take” post-mortem of the 2008 election. The selection of Ms. Palin as VP was a shocker to say the least to both Republicans and Democrats alike. Was it a desperate move on the part of Mr. McCain to garner the pro-Hillary backlash crowd? Many people thought that it was an appeal to those who still supported Hillary for President and maybe, just maybe, McCain would influence the votes of women who thought Hillary was “robbed.” And of course Hillary was indignant about the fact that she was denied the nomination to a virtual “newcomer” to politics. Hindsight is great when assessing what happened in 2008. We can speculate on all the “what ifs” and “why fors” and draw our own conclusions as to what really tipped the electorate towards Mr. Obama. Personally, I like the acronym on the latest bumper “snicker.”
O ne
B ig
A $$
M i$take
A merica.
Mr. Obama didn’t win the election, Mr. McCain gave it away, lock, stock and barrel. One wonders did he really want to be President this time around? With a campaign that mirrored the first President Bush’s re-election v.s. Bill Clinton the outcome was pretty much decided long before the selection of Gov. Palin as V.P. Her presence on the campaign trail was great fodder for the mainstream media who exploited every aspect of her career, family and political inexperience. Sarah Palin was a refreshing antidote to the career politicians who usually line up to run for the highest offices in the land. I just loved the “in your face” attitude and wished she could have been more of herself during the entire campaign. Too bad the Republicans put the gloves on Gov. Palin, I bet she could have bloodied some noses with her bare fists.
I can’t stand Palin and ever since that old fool McCain picked her, I too have had serious concerns about his ability to make good decisions and the dopes he surrounds himself with. The Vanity Fair article about her sums it all up pretty well.
I usually disagree with almost everything John Leavitt posts but I agree with him almost 100% in this case.
And I never agree with anyone, but I agree with this. Palin’s problem is not that she is being picked on, it is that she is an idiot.