We’ve had a couple of days now to mull over the Sarah Palin pick, listen to everyone blather on and on about good or bad, smart or stupid, forget about it in the wake of Hurricane Gustav and then think about it again.
In her favor:
- She won me $35 in the office Republican VP pool.
- She’s the first MILF ever to run on a presidential ticket (according to the men in my office).
- She’s cute. She used to be a beauty queen and everything. And her husband is yummy.
- She’s against corruption. We think.
- She’s a woman.
- She has executive experience. She is a governor after all.
- She’s super pro-life. The evangelicals are loving her. And she’s totes into creationism!
- She belongs to a union. And so does her husband. Hey, McCain seemed to think it was important in his intro speech!
- She’s a fresh face. Little is known about her. She has no baggage.
- Her foreign policy experience is evolving. That means she’s not stuck in some rut or inside-Beltway thinking, right?
Sigh. I’m having a hard time coming up with a list that makes sense why she would have been chosen. But McCain’s no dummy, right? I’m sure he would have thought through all of these things before picking her, right. And he definitely vetted her, right? And he most assuredly met with her several times, right?
She’s a fresh face [or young or new or represents change or what-have-you]: This is all true. She is certianly a fresh face. She most definitely represents change for the Republicans — the fact that she is younger than 72 and female pretty much marks her as different than a whole lot of Republicans already. Don’t you want the future of the Republican Party to look like her instead of Mitt Romney? Or Joe Lieberman (aka He Who Is Dead To Me)? She brings the average age of the ticket down considerably. The problem is that next to her John McCain looks even older and less new, even more grumpy grandfather and less with-it. Bet she knows how to use email.
She is a woman: Sure, it’s an historic pick. First Republican vice-presidential female candidate, blah, blah, blah. But it isn’t like we’ve never had a major female vice-presidential candidate before (although no one thought it would be another 24 years). And the thing is that the Democrats kinda have a lock on the whole sweeping historic moments this election-go-around.
And if McCain picked her simply to pick up the PUMA vote and then they actually vote for him because of this pick? They should be ashamed of themselves. It isn’t about having a woman in the slot, is it? Because it should be about having the right woman in the slot. You wanted Hillary Clinton and you ended up with Sarah Palin. Man. Was Kay Bailey Hutchinson not available (there’s a woman who might have given Joe Biden a fair fight)? Did Carly Fiorina screw it up with her Viagra and birth control talk? Are there no worthier Republican women?
The experience thing: Notice I didn’t say more experienced Republican women. Because really, in the end, America doesn’t much care of the experience of its vice presidents (cough, cough, Dan Quayle, Spiro Agnew, cough, cough) and maybe doesn’t even really care much about the experience of its presidents either (cough, cough, Bill Clinton, George Bush III, cough, cough).
And it’s true that she has some executive experience on her. She’s balanced a budget (that’s more than our current president has done, after all.) The problem is that she has 18 months of executive experience. In a state with less people than 47 other states. And that the Vice-President’s office isn’t one that requires a lot of power weilding (unless you are our current Dark Lord of the Old Executive Office Building). Oh, wait. I’m forgetting her 6-year stint as the mayor of Wasilla. A town of 6,500. Which is, as Jake Tapper so helpfully points out, less than 1/10 of the population of Denver’s Invesco Field last Thursday night.
And really, you should try to be interested in foreign policy even if you don’t have a lot of experience with it. It’s good to have some grasp of what’s being talked about at the big kids table. And proximity to Russia is not a substitute for actual knowledge. And it might help if you’ve left the country more than, oh, once.
She’s for ethical government: Sure. That sounds great. Here’s the thing though. That comment about having no baggage. Everyone has baggage. The question is how much of it is known. And for Sarah Palin, not a lot of it is known. Yet. So I’m going to wait on the ethics question until after the ethics probe is finished. And after Ted Stevens has been brought to trial. Alaska, with all that oil money and frontier attitude running around, is probably a pretty easy place to get some baggage.
All that other stuff: She belongs to a union. So does her husband because he used to work for BP. Does that mean that suddenly Republicans are for unions? Somehow, I don’t think so. And my guess is that will be a line quickly rubbed out of her official bio. She is pretty and those pictures of 
are sort of appealing in a Lara Croft way (if that appeals to you, that is). She likes guns. Although it would be hard to be an Alaskan politician and not like guns. On the other hand, she doesn’t like polar bears.
Screw the other stuff, it’s about the oil: and the natural gas and opening up ANWR and the controversial gas pipeline and now maybe about reserves underneath the Arctic Circle. Maybe. But she actually didn’t think much of anything was wrong with Obama’s energy plan.
Who knows what to think: Yea, that seems to be about it. It could be a disaster or in 65 days, we could be bemoaning its brilliance.
Related posts:
It’s been pointed out that one thing in Palin’s favor is that maybe, just maybe Tina Fey will return to Saturday Night Live for the fall.
Because they look exactly alike!