Breaking News: McCain Picks VP Out of Spite for EDC

So apparently McCain didn't like my accusation that the Republican ticket would be two boring, old, white men. Thus, instead of trying to pick a running mate who is prepared to be President, John McCain has chosen this:


Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK), at only 44 was the youngest Governor in the history of Alaska, and will now become the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket. She brings her good looks, her five children, her experience of 2 years as governor, 4 years on the Wasilla City Council (population 5,470), and Mayor of Wasilla for 6 years. In other words, she has less legitimate experience than Senator Obama, whom McCain himself argues is unprepared to be President.

We'll see how this plays out, but by picking a woman, McCain is clearly going after Hillary supporters, who I think are already too solidly back in the Democratic camp to be won over by Palin (who is pro-life and against gay marriage, by the way).

I will say that this probably takes Alaska off the board for Obama, since Palin's approval ratings there are at 80% or higher.

Update: Governor Palin's campaign responds to EDC's attack against her; Palin argues:
"Just want you to know if John does not show up, I am ready to go on. This country needs its Vice-President. And you are gonna deprive them of that because I have breasts? Exquisite breasts?" Yes I know, a bit over-the-top, but how can I resist stealing jokes from Anchorman?


Second, Much More Real Update:

Experience that relates to being President; when I said legitimate, I didn't mean in the sense that the work done by mayors and city council members doesn't matter, I simply meant that it doesn't prepare you to negotiate with world leaders and lead our nation. Obama, who has been accused repeatedly of inexperience, has spent 4 years in the United States Senate, serving on the Committee for Foreign Relations, the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and two years each on the Committee for Environment and Public Works, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. I doubt that Palin's experience as Mayor of Wasilla would have brought her in contact with many of those topics. Before that he spent 8 years legislating for the State of Illinois, two years of which he was actually Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee.

During those 8 years, Palin was serving as Mayor of Wasilla, a town of 6,000 people. Then she ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor. She did serve the next two years as Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and then from 2007 to present as the Governor of Alaska, after being elected with 114,697 votes.

Obama, in being elected to the State Senate in 2002, representing the 13th State Senate district which is a part of Cook County - population 5 million. Then, when he ran in 2004 for Senate, he received roughly 3.6 million votes. My point is, Palin doesn't have significant experience being accountable to a large number of people. More importantly, she has absolutely no record on foreign affairs. If something (God forbid) were to happen to John McCain, she would become President. She would have no idea what she was doing in controlling our diplomatic relations with every other nation in the world. Yes, she knows how to be an executive (albeit on a much smaller scale), and that would probably benefit her in carrying our some of her tasks. However, she's never faced national problems. The closest that any issues have ever brought her to a problem facing the United States of America (instead of just Alaska) was when she argued a Department of the Interior decision that polar bears were endangered species (and subsequently declared that theories about climate change were "unreliable").



As important as polar bears are, it doesn't make Palin ready to handle America's great challenges of the 21st century. McCain's choice shows a failure in judgment; Palin seems like a wonderful mother, a truly dynamic individual, and a person who has shown herself incredibly committed to public service in Alaska (and has a record in those years to show for it). But being a good person doesn't make you ready to be President. McCain's choice is a thinly-veiled attempt to woo still-angry Hillarites and other undecided female voters. Any citizen who takes a step back and considers why McCain made the choice he made will instantly realize that this is pure pandering.

Or maybe McCain is actually signaling a desire to end the "experience" debate (since there's absolutely no historical correlation between experience and the "success" of our presidents), and concentrate instead on the issues and questions of judgment. Yeah right - I can already hear the McCain Campaign's official response to criticism of Palin: "John McCain can pick whoever he deems fit to be his running mate. After all, John McCain spent 5 1/2 years without any mate running beside him. And what's more, it's unfair to force John McCain to debate the issues rationally. He spent 5 1/2 years without anyone to debate political issues with, while Barack Obama played with other children on the playground (probably young members of the Hilton family)."

Palin is a great leader in Alaska, and we should do everything we can to keep her there. She's not ready for the trials of national leadership, and McCain has failed to make even a decent decision in what may be the most important of his potential presidency. No wonder, considering he's only spoken to her about the Vice-Presidency once or twice.


Third and Final Update: Late-breaking, self-glorifying news tonight, as EDC receives word that Jon Stewart agreed with my initial assessment of Sarah Palin in that she really really looks and sounds like Tina Fey. Jon, you and I were meant to be together.