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Edited on Fri Aug-29-08 05:56 PM by Jeff In Milwaukee
Note: Nothing in this post is to be construed as permission to slack off in our effort to elect Barak Obama
The 2008 Presidential Election is no longer about the Republicans and their attempt to hold on to the White House. That train left the station about a year ago, and the reason the Democratic Primaries lasted so long (and turned so bitter) is that whoever won the Democratic Nomination was virtually assured of being the next President. Neither John McCain nor any other Republican ever had a chance of winning the White House. During this election cycle, Paris Hilton has a better shot than anybody with "-R" behind their last name.
The selection of Sarah Palin of Wassila, AK as John McCain's running mate is not a "Hail Mary" attempt to recharge his floundering campaign. It's an attempt to keep the Republican Party from tearing itself to shreds during the next eighteen months. It's a sop to the religious conservatives who hate McCain nearly as much as the hate Obama (Obama is black, so he gets bonus hate points) and an attempt to mollify the base to keep them from coalescing around former Georgia Representative Rob Barr.
It's not as though Barr would win the election, either, but Republican operatives know that once conservative Christians leave the reservation, there's a strong likelihood that they won't come back, at least in large enough numbers to allow the Republicans to win many more elections. What the Republican Party needed was a candidate willing to be a sacrificial lamb, but who after being beaten like the proverbial red-headed stepchild, would not be in a position to lead the party in 2012. If only there were some way to exile the patsy after the 2008 Election, to some place so far away that the news media attempt to resurrect her a viable candidate four years from now.
Would Alaska be far enough?
Here's the danger with Sarah Palin. She's going to bring out those paleo-conservatives in Ohio and Pennsylvania because of her over-the-top opposition to abortion (she's also opposed to birth control), her belief in creationism and denial of global warming, and her opposition to gay marriage. The same religious conservatives who believe that a woman's place is in the home will gladly turn out in droves to cause Sarah Palin to uproot her family and move from Alaska to Washington, D.C. In that respect, she brings the same appeal to the ticket as would Mike Huckabee.
The opportunity with Sarah Palin is pretty obvious -- even Dan Quayle brought a more serious resume to the job of Vice President. Three years ago she was the mayor of a town with a population of less than 6,000 and she's been the governor of Alaska for only eighteen months -- long enough to have a special prosecutor appointed to investigate corruption in her administration. That might be a record. Looking to tie McCain to Bush? Remind them what appointing unqualified political cronies did for the City of New Orleans.
As a partisan Democrat, I couldn't be happier with McCain's choice.
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