Of course there is only one way to make sense of McCain's choice for vice president. It is a naked, one-hundred-percent political calculation. No one can say with a straight face that Sarah Palin is ready to be president. She's been governor of Alaska for less than two years and has no experience in national or international affairs.
She was selected because of what she brings to the Republican ticket: youth, a nice bio, an attractive family, and a couple of X chromosomes. McCain has proven that he's not serious about "putting country first." There isn't anything he wouldn't do to advance his electoral chances.
Actually, it isn't clear that the selection of Sarah Palin is a good advertisement for McCain's political judgment, either. It is so transparently a play for female votes that it insults the intelligence of females. The idea is that the operating principle of Hillary Clinton voters must be nothing more than: a woman, any woman, no matter what, a woman. Republicans have been frequent critics of identity politics, and it is not by a long shot their least appealing trait. Now their candidate for president has exhibited that, in his estimation, the tendency of women to vote for women is a sufficient reason for selecting a woman as candidate for vice president of the United States.
The Power Line philosophers are, naturally, confused. One, Paul Mirengoff, writes: "I'm very disappointed that John McCain would put someone as inexperienced and lacking in foreign policy and national security background as Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency." Fellow traveller Hinderaker, attempting to buck himself up, considers the possibility that she might actually help McCain. But the blog buddies aren't on the same page. Mirengoff's point has nothing to do with electoral considerations. He's disappointed--his word--that electoral considerations trumped the national interest.
Which they plainly did. Which is why, as an electoral strategy, the governor of Alaska is a mistake. I'm imagining one of those baritone voices at the conclusion of an advertising hit job: John McCain. Wrong on the politics. Worse on the merits.
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