It seems interesting to me that many people have just blown off Palin as a throwaway choice, a stupid move, a bad idea for McCain that will obviously backfire. It also amuses me to see everyone trying to decide if Palin was a sop to the right or a play for Clinton voters, and I see very little acknowledgement of the biggest thing about her: she’s BOTH.
She’s a smart, pretty, accomplished woman that most of us would like if her political views weren’t so damn odious. Moreover, she’s bound to attract the kind of sexist media attention that got a lot of the Clinton base so angry (and so convinced that Obama stole something from them).
She is likable in a way McCain is not.
And yes, she believes in all the things that most of us despise about the Christian Right, and is an oil junkie to boot. So really, while McCain may well have undercut his best argument, he’s also played to both areas of his base–the social conservatives and the oilmen–and at the same time made an attempt to reach out to the gender-essentialist wing of the Clinton fanbase.
I agree with many people that yes, McCain is “doubling down” here, taking a risk on an unvetted candidate with two years of high-level political experience. He’s undercutting his main anti-Obama argument for identity politics and hoping identity politics works because he may well think that Americans only vote that way. He’s condescending, and taking a huge risk.
But to laugh off Sarah Palin because she’s unvetted and inexperienced is, as M. LeBlanc noted, is to assume once again that Republican strategists are stupid. They aren’t. If they were so damn stupid, they wouldn’t have had power for all of my lifetime except the Clinton years, and let’s face it, the Clinton years weren’t bastions of progressive activism either.
Never underestimate your opponent.
McCain may well have shot himself in the foot–Palin could say something dumb (dumber than “what does the VP do all day?” which, well–can YOU answer that? I mean, in Cheney’s case I assume it involves lots of devilish cackling and roasting little babies alive, but…) or the scandal could blow up in her face.
But it could also have the opposite effect–energizing the religious base AND attracting just enough PUMA-types to swing the election his way.
I don’t know if there’s been a case in which the VP choice actually swung an election for a candidate. I know there have been times where they hurt a candidate–McGovern comes to mind, and maybe even Gore (don’t we all wish we’d known what an ass Lieberman would’ve become?). I guess we’ll have to see.
Sarah J said: ” … to laugh off Sarah Palin because she’s unvetted and inexperienced is … to assume … that Republican strategists are stupid. They aren’t.”
In light of today’s press releases that 17-year-old, unmarried Bristol Palin is pregnant and that McCain knew of Bristol’s pregnancy when he tapped Sarah Palin for VP, voters may have to assume that McCain and Sarah Palin are stupid, even if Republican strategists aren’t.
If McCain really did know of Bristol’s pregnancy when he chose his VP, McCain is not only stupid but dangerously callous toward the welfare of a pregnant teenager, to knowingly put her under the ordeal of the national spotlight.
Sarah Palin comes off even worse, because she certainly knew of her daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy and still put her through the ordeal of public attention.
McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s treatment of this vulnerable pregnant teenager sheds a light on their actual “family values” as well as on the quality of their decisionmaking.
Once the public absorbs this fact, Sarah Palin will be finished as a candidate, and McCain should be as well.
i thought Cheney checked his man sized safes all day.
i hate being optimistic but Palin was mayor of a town barely larger than my house. Which is fine but she doesnt seem to have the gravtias (thank you S Colbert) to pull this off.
but you are correct in pointing out to never underestimate the sobs
As a vagina American (thank you Samantha Bee), I think it’s a brilliant choice by the Republicans.
I doubt anyone who is left of Pat Robertson thinks Palin’s political ideas are what this country needs. But now, we feminists are going to spend loads of our time defending her from the misogyny in the media. Which, of course, many people won’t understand the reasoning for and think that “those crazy feminists” just want a woman in the White House and will even sell out their beliefs to support any vagina totin’ person….
Which will lead to discourse in the left. Everyone will misunderstand everyone else and we’ll all be up in arms (which we should have stricter control on - oh! did you just say that? We should have the freedom to bare arms if we want! - No way!! Stricter gun control for all!)
If there’s anything right wingers are good at, it’s getting the left to in-fight and fall apart while they laugh and congeal into a stronger, fiercer super-Jesus force for all that is conservative.
Brilliant.