Sarah Palin – the Next Vice President
Well that’s it. The players are all in place for the 2008 Presidential Election: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, or President John McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin will be what we say on January 20, 2009. (Well Bob Barr and others, but they won’t win).
Yesterday, after Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, John McCain announced his V.P. pick of Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska; a mixed decision that will either help ignite the base or push people away.
The Democrats have decided to nominate Barack Obama as President, the first (half) black to win such a nomination. The Democrats also almost nominated the first women Presidential nominee – if you slice the election to simple 50 / 50 chances, there are going to be firsts made.
The question I think that Republicans want to avoid: is McCain just trying to ride on the coattails of what Hillary Clinton did, with the nomination of Palin?
Watching C-SPAN this morning, callers were saying that the choice was a bad decision and that they were going to move over to Obama. While some of course like the decision I think it has to cut deep to people who thought that they might see the first women elected as President.
Are there really any Clinton supporters left, who are reasonable, rational, willing to look past the candidate that can be swayed to vote for McCain now? Sure there are Clinton supporters that don’t fit those descriptions, who are more in love with the notion of a women being President then what they know to be best for themselves and country that will vote for McCain.
But how many are there really left?
The media was all abuzz last night, as people weighed in on the pick. I think that many conservatives and Republicans were looking for something to be excited about with their ticket. The Demarcates have Obama, inspiring millions of people to vote and get involved, and the Republicans had McCain – yawn? But now at least they have someone who could help bring some excitement to the ticket and earn votes in November.
I love how defenders of the nominee, when they were forced to compare her lack of experience to the charges against Obama’s experience cited the fact that she was running for V.P., not President. Um, what? That old saying of a heartbeat away from the Presidency seems to not be present in the brains of conservatives and Republicans.
You can’t make that argument, you just can’t. The assumption should always be that if the Vice President has to step up to serve as President, it would be made in the middle of a disaster. You have to be ready to handle an emergency where the President is gone and chaos is rampant – will voters see Palin being that person?
That’s why it didn’t make any sense for Clinton to suggest that Obama could be her V.P. – if he lacks the experience to be President, then how can he serve as your Vice President when he could be called to serve as President in the midsts of a disaster?
Now I’m not suggesting that Palin doesn’t have the experience, judgment, or whatever else a person needs to have or be to be President, but supporters can’t make the argument that she isn’t running for President so she doesn’t have to be held to as high a standard as the person who is. It is just an air-headed argument.
So either drop the argument over Obama’s experience and focus on the issues or enjoy answering questions like that from now until the election.
Once you move past who is Sarah Palin then you are left with either a great! or what? feeling. Clearly the Republicans are looking to capture the same excitement found on the Democratic ticket – of course will it work is the question.
The question is will people feel that they can vote for John McCain just because of his selection of Palin as Vice President. I actually don’t even think there is a chance to be had that McCain has any chance of getting any voters other then the most die-hard Clinton supporters.
Hillary Clinton would have earned her party’s nomination through a long, hard primary battle. She would have earned the nomination or even V.P. spot because of the effort and work put into the nominee battle.
Now it seems that people could very well just be insulted that McCain is trying to get votes by putting a woman on the ticket – especially when people have argued that there are women in the Republican Party with much more experience than Palin.
I think that they’ll see it and feel like their vote is just something McCain can get for his V.P. choice and so will keep their mind open about voting for Obama (or someone else).
If anything the Vice Presidential debate should be a good show. Will Joe Biden just out do Sarah Palin? Will Biden become overbearing and seem like a bully? Will Palin be able to cross that incredibly low bar set, or will she fall short? October 2, don’t miss it.
November 4, 2008 is Election Day, only 65 days from now we get to see who is going to become the next President and Vice President, and once the Republican National Convention is over the race will be on.
August 30, 2008
Tags: election 2008, politicsFiled under: Life — August 30th, 2008 - By Yillb Comments (0)
