Let's be clear about something: The goal of an election is to be elected. Nothing else matters. On that basis, Sarah Palin was a strong choice for vice president. She's a young, pro-life woman who has made few gaffes (coutesy of her limited experience). The Republican machine concluded that someone with those characteristics would provide the most benefit to the goal of getting elected, and so she was selected, not unlike how Dan Quayle was selected to be the vice presidential candidate a decade and a half ago. She'll gain more votes for mcCain then she will cost, and that is the bottom line.
Putting that aside, on ANY objective basis, she is a TERRIBLE choice for vice president--basically, a joke. Think about what a vice president does; what his or her role is (or should be). It is to provide advice to the president on sensitive matters and represent the U.S. Government abroad. How could she POSSIBLY advise John McCain on ANYTHING? McCain has met her once, so he has no reason to trust her judgment. She has no foreign policy experience, experience dealing with Congress, or experience in nearly any issue that is regulated or addressed by a federal department or agency.
Some of you, who have criticised Obama for the past several months on the basis of his lack of experience, are now justifying this selection because she has "no less experience than Obama." How hypocritical. The two situations are nothing alike. Obama was chosen as his party's nominee by going through a grueling selection process. Millions of voters around the country weighed his inexperience against his other qualities, and those of his opponents, and concluded that he was the best candidate to represent the Democratic party. Maybe they will turn out to be wrong, and that his inexperience should have outweighed other factors--but the key is that he was chosen despite this obvious weakness, and that the voters were willing to take the risk that he could lose the general election on that basis.
Who chose Sarah Palin? Certainly not John McCain, who wouldn't even recognize her at a cocktail party. Certainly not Republican voters. It was the Republican machine that is only interested in increasing the probability of getting elected, by trying to attract those shallow, one-issue voters. If you are suspicious of Obabma's credentials to be president, then there is no way around it: you should be suspicious of Palin as well, and the process that chose her to be McCain's running mate. Could she make a good Vice President? Yeah, sure, but so could three hundred of my acquaintences. But as an American, I am disgusted that it had to come to this--that she was "selected" solely because she was a young woman who was
pro-choice, experience and likely contribution to the administration be damned. But hey, if Quayle didn't take down a campaign, no vice presidential candidate ever will.
As for McCain--it seems to me that he is now no longer in charge of his campaign. All the decisions are being made for him. This is a pretty good read on that point:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1836909,00.html.
