And you’re surprised, exactly…WHY???
Yeah, so presidential hopeful John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential nominee. And this surprises you why?
He had no choice but to add a woman to his ticket. After the Democratic convention, Republicans were forced to recognize that the handwriting was on the wall: Voters are more than ready to listen to a younger, fresher voice. In addition, McCain and his cronies believe that there may be some former Hillary supporters who are on the fence about voting for a black man. Thus, they had to bring someone aboard who is both younger and female if they are to have any hope of garnering any presumptive swing votes.
Fortunately for the rest of us, however, this is a huge strategic mistake. Virtually every negative assertion that McCain’s camp has made about Barack Obama has been countered, both easily and effectively; the sole remaining claim that some found difficult to answer was the younger man’s age and relative inexperience. But now the Republican ticket’s own vice-presidential nominee is a former beauty queen — a self-styled “hockey mom” who (a) is three years younger than Sen. Obama; (b) has only been a governor (of an under-populated state, at that) for two years; and (c) prior to that was a small-town mayor!
McCain turned 72 years of age on the day he publicly named his running mate; if elected, he would be the oldest man ever elected to a first term as POTUS. He also has a history of cancer. Did he and his team choose to ignore the fact that, in McCain’s own words, the vice president must be qualified to step immediately into the presidency of the world’s greatest superpower?
I really believe McCain’s selection was a fatal error, and I love it.
(…and the perfect editorial cartoon lives here: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/cartoons/08_25_08_inktank/.)