Knock-Knock. Who’s There? Palin. Palin who?

It seems like the strongest argument McCain had going for him had to do with Obama’s lack of experience. I think Obama addressed that issue by bringing Biden onboard, an inspired pick the more I think about it. But it’s still there, of course, and could be an effective weapon to sway some of the independent and undecided voters towards McCain. I really don’t get why McCain would squander that by going with a veep that has less experience than Obama, especially on a national level. Now we have McCain, the 72-year-old that, let’s face it, brings a health risk with him to the Oval Office being backed up by someone who’s NEVER played in national or international politics.

So why’d he choose Palin? I think we all know the answer to that one but let’s at least give some other possibilities a shot, first.

Is it because she’s the governor of a battleground state? Alaska is to Republicans what DC is to Democrats, electoral votes no matter who’s running. So that can’t be it.

Is it her policies? Hard to tell, to date she’s operated on a local level and a lot of her social policies lean towards the center (EDIT: Ok, so she seems to be socially conservative on some issues, centrist on others).

Is it because she provides something that McCain lacks? Youth, I guess. A shot at the female demo, maybe.

But that’s what it’s always going to come back to – Palin is a young woman. No matter what McCain may say, that’s why she was picked. At this stage in her career that’s all she brings to the table. A BS in journalism, little experience outside of small American cities and towns, a former beauty queen, a former sports reporter, a former HS basketball player…she brings nothing substantial to McCain’s ticket except to help the Hill-supporting Obama-spiters feel better about their eventual McCain vote.

Let’s put it this way, if the two-year Governor from Alaska was a man with the same exact policies and presence as Palin, McCain wouldn’t even know his name.

What this shows me is that McCain just doesn’t get it. It’s like in comics, when folks at DC and Marvel sit down and say, “Manga’s hot – let’s draw our characters with bigger eyes.” It doesn’t work like that – Hillary and Obama excited people because of what they’re saying, not because of their genitalia or skin color. Maybe some people, sure, but those people already had liberal sensibilities and they were becoming active for the first time. They weren’t die-hard conservatives that decided they were going to vote of Hill because she had a couple of breasts or Obama because he has the same skin color as them.

McCain took a chance and I think it’s going to fail. It’ll bring the issues of his old age back to the table and it’ll paint her as a gimmick pick. I’m voting for Obama, anyway, so it’s of little consequence to me. It’s just sad to see the man that I was ready to throw my support behind in 2000 fall so far out of touch with reality.

It’ll be an interesting November. And I really can’t wait for the veep debate.

Labels: editorial, politics

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