John McCain and his VP

(I'll be on the Steve Gill show for a few minutes tomorrow to discuss my concerns with Steve who thinks this is a great pick. Steve's show is live M-Saturday from 9a-12noon ET and can be heard live at http://www.1510wlac.com/).


Well, I had little confidence in John McCain's decision making before now and he has reinforced that belief. The Media and republican pundit types are applauding McCain's decision to name Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential nominee. I, for one, am not applauding. Once again, McCain has squandered an opportunity to show good judgement and decision making. Otherwise, why pick an unknown female, not even one term governor, from a state with the population of a small U.S. city? Why pick someone with little experience and take away the best reason to vote for McCain over Obama in November? In an effort to live up to his "maverick" claims, McCain went against "conventional wisdom" for his pick. That he did indeed. However, elections are about strategy and issue positions. While Gov. Palin is right on most of the issues, she doesn't help with an electoral map strategy at all. Her state of Alaska with its few electoral votes are going republican this fall. She is a wild card and how will those in the heartland who were having problems voting for McCain any way view this? It would have been imminently better to have chosen someone that has the appearance as being the next President and provides you some advantage in the electoral map. Even Tom Ridge of Penn. who would have angered social conservatives would have been a better pick with the possibility of McCain carrying that state. Mitt Romney, with his religion an issue, would have been better with the possibility of bringing Michigan, a blue state, into the fold. Even the Governor of Minn. would have possible helped in turning that state red from blue.
While Governor Palin has been regarded as rising star in the republican party, her star needed to rise for a while longer before being chosen. I like what a republican friend of mine said on during an interview with me on a radio station recently: "..we are going to fall off the cliff with either McCain or Obama. We just slow down the process of getting to the cliff with McCain."
Well, I think we just sped up. A couple of guys on a Birmingham, AL station I was listening to this morning said "..get ready for President Obama. McCain just ceded the election to him..(with the pick of Palin).
Well, I'll try to calm down now...

Email reactions I'm getting:

Today....gotta agree with you.Only benefit to your side, which is obvious, is that some angry-Hillaryites, with the high likelihood of her succeeding a 72-yr-old guy, might put gender over policy and defect for good.Anyway, thanks for your honesty. She might be a good choice electorally, but it would be awfully hard to defend her on the basis of experience. Makes Obama look like he was born in the Capitol. ---Greg

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"I agree with you on the inexperience part....otherwise, I'll just have to wait and see."-- Erik

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She is pretty, though. Hillary is an old battle axe in comparison. And watching the reaction of the crowd in Ohio, she's causing a lot excitement.

Hey, no one I really like is running. It's always been a choice for the lesser of two evils. Not since Ronald Reagan has there been a candidate that I loved.

Man, Sarah Palin is HOT! Vavavavoooom! LO--- Jim
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"She's very attractive and could probably pose for playboy. Other than her looks I don't think the shebrings much to the table. I'm not too happy about it either. I may have to vote for Nader. Just Kidding!Take care Doug. Always good to hear from you." ---John
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"The pick just passed the first step as Rush has approved."--Matt

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"THAT WAS A TERRIBLE DECISION ON MCCAIN'S PART IN MY OPINION....BUT HELL ...WHAT DO I KNOW?"--- Stephen

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"Sorry Doug! You know I think you're brilliant, but I have to agree with your buddy Matt on this one. I think Palin will do much to win this for McCain. She's fresh, she's bright, she's unafraid and has close to a 90% approval rate in Alaska. I can see her charisma spreading. She will capture much of the Hillary crowd as well as lots of union members. She is definitely not an elitest as most of the others are! You haven't been listening to MSNBC, have you? Just kidding. Of course you have, as I have, to get another perspective. Nausea makes my time watching MSNBC short-lived though." --- Mary
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My buddy Matt Burke is trying to calm me down with this article:

An inspired choice

By Matt Burke

August 29, 2008

Today we awoke to the news that Senator McCain has selected Governor Sarah Palin as his nominee for the Vice Presidency. I was first intrigued by her after reading an article about her on Human Events, profiling possible Vice Presidential candidates. In that profile, she came across as a principled conservative who was a reformer that took on the “ethically challenged” members of the Alaskan Republican Party. Bill Kristol later extolled the virtues of a Palin nomination and has been a strong supporter ever since.

Before we begin, we should consider that all potential Republican Vice Presidential candidates had their strengths and weaknesses. While Romney would have given McCain an economic expert, he was only a one term Governor and his signature policy (healthcare) is now failing badly. Pawlenty appeared to be a nice guy with strong credentials, but a nice guy would have been run over by Senator Biden. Huckabee, Giuliani and Fred Thompson were never really considered.

During the selection process, one refrain consistently heard from the conservative base was that a pro-choice candidate would never be accepted. This ruled out Lieberman, Ridge and Giuliani.

With Sarah Palin, we have a mother of five, including a son who is about to go to Iraq. She recently gave birth to a child with Down’s syndrome (whom I am sure Barack Obama would support to partial birth abort. I can see that coming up in a debate). She labels herself as a pro-life feminist who supports drilling here and now, including in ANWAR. She is a solid conservative whom the Obama campaign never saw coming.

But most important is her identity. The Republican Party has unfairly been labeled as the old white man party. Sarah Palin brings a fresh breath of air into a stale party, one who is certainly not a Washington insider. As a woman, she will help us build the party as one of inclusion, especially after what happened to Hillary Clinton in the primaries and the feeling from a number of Democrats that she was slighted.

Barack Obama is currently running poorly with women voters, especially those over age 50. The only way he can win is to gain support from them. With the nomination of Sarah Palin, that job is much more difficult if not impossible. Many feel that

Finally, many feel that she is a wasted choice because Alaska was already going to vote Republican. First of all, the polls were tightening in Alaska, thanks to Senator Stevens indictment, and while three Electoral Votes may not appear to be much, we need to save as much as possible. Also, the last time a Vice Presidential candidate was important in carrying a state and ultimately winning the election was Lyndon Johnson in 1960.

Also, many point to the fact that she has not been a Governor for a long period of time before her selection. It is important to note that Teddy Roosevelt was the Governor of New York for one year before he was tabbed to be Vice President.

While the selection of Sarah Palin will not win a particular state, what she will do is help Senator McCain win the election. Well done!!