Friday, August 29, 2008

GOP VP picked

Well this is not confirmed until McCain speaks in Dayton today, but apparently he's chosen to try out the lady vote. He's chosen Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Not a bad choice considering a few base observations of the campaign. He's obviously trying to woo the Hillary-ites so he can continue to utilize the fake PUMA group as a distraction to Democrats who should know better. He's trying to match the historical significance of Obama's race with an also historically significant female Vice President. The only difference being that Palin's nomination will only be truly historical if McCain actually wins, which he won't*. It's also worth mentioning that this is directly trying to reunite a strong GOP state. Alaska has been very blue these days thanks to some fairly upsetting revelation into Ted Stevens corruption scandal. That he won the primary spells extra trouble for the GOP in that state. So choosing the Governor for VP give way to pro-Alaska banter while wooing the Northwest.

But I think there's something else telling about this VP pick. It follows the similar Kool-Aid McCain's been drinking since the primaries started. It goes against his basic stance of experience and service. Palin has only been Governor since 2006. Her political career is not that deep. But I think she'll fit right in with the new McCain. The one that doesn't really know anything. How many houses he has, how much money the middle class actually earns. Palin isn't quite sure what a Vice President does:

From MSNBC:
"As for the prospect of her being vice president, Palin told Kudlow that she could not answer the question of whether she wanted the job “until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day. I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here….”


Sounds to many like an admission that she cares about her constituency and needs to make sure this would be a good choice for Alaska. But it also sounds like she isn't very familiar with the Articles of the Constitution, nor does she understand how important the job of Vice President is. The VP is President of the Senate, fallback if the President is indisposed or unable to complete his/her term. The VP is there to keep up the fight against the opposition party, while protecting the President's overall image. The VP can be champion of the administration's policies, while also pushing other policies for the party that the President can't be involved with. The VP can be both the most useless and the 2nd most important man of a Presidential administration. Many who've held it have though it the worst job in government. But many who've held it have gone on to becoming the next President of the United States. I think Ms. Palin could use a civics lesson.

*he better not

UPDATE: From the Obama Campaign:
"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

Also, Aislinn thinks that she probably took the job figuring McCain won't make it four years. A little grim, but probably not far from the truth. I doubt many women these days would give up the opportunity to be the first female U.S. President.

UPDATE 2: She's also under investigation right now for abuse of power... From ThinkProgress:
But Palin’s reformer image took a hit last month when she was accused of attempting to get a state trooper fired. That state trooper was her former brother-in-law who had gone through “a messy divorce” with her sister. After the trooper’s boss wouldn’t act on the governor’s request, she fired him. Though Palin says she doesn’t “have anything to hide” and she “didn’t do anything wrong there,” an investigation has found that one of her aides pushed the firing:

Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday revealed an audio recording that shows an aide pressuring the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.

Palin, who has previously said her administration didn’t exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.

2 comments:

Katie said...

I am soooooooo glad he shot himself in the foot with this one!! Senile old man.

Dr 4LOM said...

Cheers!