McCain’s smartest moves all year
1. Choose a working-class VP to balance out his seven houses.
2. Choose a charismatic VP to add some charm to the ticket.
3. Choose a socially conservative VP to shore up the base.
4. Choose a woman, so sympathy will be with her if Biden goes for the throat.
5. Choose a woman in an effort to court disillusioned Clinton supporters.
And the big one:
6. Announce a shocking VP twelve hours after Obama gives a grand-slam acceptance speech, completely coopting the news cycle and burying Obama’s triumph.
Palin brings some weaknesses to the ticket, no doubt. She’s served less than one term in a low-population state that might as well be on another continent, making her even less experienced than Dan Quayle was in 1988. Sexism will hurt her, just as it hurt Clinton. But right now, McCain’s looking pretty fuckin’ smart to me.
Bastard.
I’m gonna go watch Obama again. It’ll cheer me up.
Hot Tramp is just another twentysomething Californian sending her opinions out into the aether.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Of course, by stating all of those things, you’ve just reminded yourself of all of McCain’s negatives. And most people don’t really care about the vice president, so that’s all they’re going to see — McCain’s old, not charismatic, rich, white, and male.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
She’s also a creationist fundie. So that’ll help somewhat with the Huckabee crowd.
I think the timing was the only smart thing about this move. It reeks of desperation. (Not even their teams knew this was going to happen, let alone her, apparently.)
August 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
foo, I don’t assume the general electorate is very much like me. I’m a crotchety leftist wonk. Seems like most of the rest of the country just likes to vote for whoever makes them feel comfortable. *shrug*
August 30th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Most people don’t care too much about politics. They will see the choice between “young guy who upsets women in politics” and “old guy who supports women in politics.” Most people are idiots. Fortunately, these would be the same people who aren’t terribly likely to vote in the first place.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I don’t really buy “co-opting the news cycle” as a useful tactic, personally. The only people it seems to effect are the media themselves (who have no choice but to report it) and those who can’t go a day without getting their daily fix of television and/or blog.
But yeah, this veep choice sounds pretty effective on paper. Let’s see what happens when the rubber meets the road and real journalistic ardor is focused on her. I hope she’ll hold up. Even if your guy (Obama) doesn’t win…at least history gets made, right?