ST. PAUL, Minn. – Here in the Twin Cities, as in every city and town across America, there’s only one question on everyone’s mind: What could possibly qualify Sarah Palin as a candidate for vice president?
The answer was provided by former presidential candidate Fred Thompson. “I can say without fear of contradiction,” he told GOP delegates, most of whom had never heard of Palin a week ago, “that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose.”
Fine. So, on your next trip to Alaska, hire her as your hunting guide. But that’s no reason for us to hire her to stand one heartbeat away from becoming president of the United States. Especially when John McCain, were he to become president at the age of 72, would, according to actuarial life insurance tables, have only a one in three chance of living to celebrate his 80th birthday.
Like you, I’m sick and tired of robotic Republicans and clueless commentators trying to spin McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin in the most positive possible light. It’s a bold move, they say. It restores McCain’s maverick status. It shows what an independent thinker he is. It’s McCain’s way of winning all those disillusioned Hillary Clinton supporters. And, besides, Palin is the only candidate on either ticket with executive experience.
Nonsense. It’s time for some straight talk. You’d have to be brain-dead or on the RNC payroll to defend McCain’s pick of Palin. It’s not a bold move; it’s a stupid move. Indeed, it’s a dangerous move. And it saddles the already-on-life-support Republican Party with the most unqualified vice-presidential candidate since Dan Quayle.
Desperately trying to defend his boss’ disastrous choice, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt put out a statement asserting that Palin has “a record of accomplishment that exceeds, by far, the governing accomplishments of Sen. Obama.” Does he really believe he can win this election by insulting our intelligence?
True, technically speaking, Barack Obama has no “executive experience.” He’s never been mayor of a town of 5,000. Nor has he been governor of a state with more reindeer than people. Yet for four years as a United States senator, Obama has studied, wrestled with and voted on every national issue from Social Security to health care to education. He has helped chart foreign policy from Iraq to Georgia. And for the last 19 months, as candidate for president, he has been grilled and spoken out on every domestic and foreign issue there is.
How much knowledge or hands-on experience does Sarah Palin have of any of these issues? Zero! Unless, of course, you subscribe to the theory of geographical proximity. As articulated by that master international strategist Cindy McCain, since “Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia,” Palin is uniquely qualified to punch out Vladimir Putin the next time he swallows up a neighboring province or two.
Equally laughable is the McCain camp’s attempt to paint Palin as a “reformer.” Her record shows just the opposite. As mayor of Wasilla, she raised sales taxes to build a sports complex. She hired a lobbyist to snare $27 million in earmarks from Washington. (Isn’t McCain campaigning against pork?) She chaired a fundraising committee for indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. Her husband belonged to, and she was active in, a campaign for Alaska to secede from the United States. And she was for “The Bridge to Nowhere” until last week, when she suddenly came out against it.
Most insulting of all is the McCain campaign’s argument that Palin will appeal to Democratic women voters still disappointed over Barack Obama’s failure to offer Hillary Clinton the second spot on the ticket. If that’s what McCain really believes, he just doesn’t get it. Women supported Hillary Clinton because of her vast experience in both domestic and foreign policy, her leadership on women’s rights and her positions on the issues. Anti-choice, anti-pay equity, pro-gun Sarah Palin is no substitute for Hillary Clinton. As an outraged U.S. Rep. Deborah Wasserman Schultz told me, women will not support another woman just because of “her plumbing.”
In the end, what’s most troubling about the choice of Sarah Palin is not what it says about her, but what it says about John McCain. In making what is widely considered his “first presidential decision,” McCain failed miserably. He didn’t do his homework, he acted impulsively, he ignored the facts, and he exercised amazingly poor judgment by rejecting several highly qualified candidates in favor of a person who has quickly become a national joke.
Ironically, the slogan of this Republican Convention, prominently displayed in the convention hall, is “Country First.” Obviously, John McCain didn’t get the message. By proposing such a hapless candidate for the nation’s second-highest office, McCain shows that what he believes will help his political career comes first. His country comes last.
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