We’re Surprised—but Why?
All right, now I'm excited. Back in March, I cast my primary vote for John McCain with confidence. His values, his stance on the issues matched mine better than those of any other Republican. His campaign was on a roll, the reports of its death the previous summer having been greatly exaggerated. He seemed to have the best chance of winning. But once he got the nomination, he just seemed ... lackluster. Granted, almost no one is going to look charismatic compared with Barack Obama, but when I saw an episode of The Daily Show with McCain talking to the press at a supermarket, standing in front of a large display of Dole orange juice, I knew what the joke was before Jon Stewart could open his mouth. . John McCain = Bob Dole.
But now he's gone and picked Sarah Palin, the young governor of Alaska for his running mate, and I could not be happier. Aside from her political bona fides, she is one cool woman. She's married to her high-school sweetheart, an Eskimo fisherman and "champion snowmobiler," according to her Wikipedia bio. They have five kids, all with slightly hippie-ish names, like Track and Willow. (No Prestons and Whitneys in that bunch.)
She's bound to appeal to fiscal conservatives, because she's as far as you can get from her fellow Alaskan Ted Stevens, the GOP senator recently indicted for "false financial disclosures" (read: corruption). She unseated Gov. Frank Murkowski in a primary and has both pushed through ethics reform and trimmed the fat from the state budget. She even killed the infamous "bridge to nowhere" project that brought Congress and Alaska so much ridicule.
Politically, it's a great move by McCain to appeal to the disgruntled Hillary voters that Obama might not have successfully wooed during the convention this week. Yes, she's pro-life, but she's not just talk. Faced with the heartbreaking news that her fifth child would likely have Down syndrome, she continued on with the pregnancy and gave birth to a son while in office, a son she calls "perfect." And like Hillary, she's one tough cookie. You don't take on an entrenched pol like Murkowski and succeed in a rugged state like Alaska if you're a lightweight.
She might have been a dark horse, but in hindsight, we should all be asking why that was so. A candidate who's going to appeal to the base, energize the campaign, and potentially reel in some Hillary supporters. Why would it have been anyone else?
ahhhh - in that case - no
