Sarah Palin and Why McCain Has Already Lost.

CarbonDate

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Sun Aug-31-08 12:44 AM
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Sarah Palin and Why McCain Has Already Lost.

John McCain chose first-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

My first reaction was, "Who?" When I answered that question, my next question was, "Why?" The experience gap between him and Obama has been the central argument of his campaign. I know he's been trying to win over disaffected Clinton supporters (although from my experience, most people supporting Hillary Clinton did so because of what she had above her neck, not because of what she had between her legs), but if he wanted to choose a woman, there were plenty more qualified women in his party for him to choose from. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Condoleeza Rice come to mind. So why choose this first-term governor and former mayor of a town of 8,000 to be a 72 year-old heartbeat away from the presidency? Really, this isn't an example of a new commitment on the part of the GOP towards gender equality. It's an example of precisely the kind of sexism that smart, accomplished women have always complained about: the pretty, non-threatening woman with the nice smile advances ahead of older, more accomplished women. For those who've ever doubted this dynamic, I submit to you: Sarah Palin, vice presidential candidate.

She has no known foreign policy opinions, let alone experience, other than "YAY AMERICA!" Does anybody doubt that, should something happen to McCain (and remember, he's 72 years old and has had two bouts with cancer already) that she'd be anything other than a puppet for the same people who've been pulling George Bush's strings the past eight years? By choosing Palin, McCain has given a big "fuck you" to the women's movement, the Republican party, and the nation as a whole. After all, if he kicks off while in office and Palin has to succeed him, it's not his fucking problem what happens, is it?

But most importantly, it means he's essentially conceded the central argument of his own candidacy. He knows that the experience gap doesn't matter. He's even started co-opting Obama's rhetoric about changing the way Washington does business. Just over two months out from the election, and McCain has taken his message and thrown it out the window. Fuck it. Experience doesn't matter. You want a celebrity? I'll show you a celebrity! Look, over here! Pretty woman running for vice president!

Thing is, elections are about contrasting yourself from your opponent, not showing how much alike you can be. McCain seems to hope that he can win by blurring the distinctions between him and Obama on the issue of change. But anybody who watched Obama's convention speech has to know: we've got this thing in the bag. It's over.

Seems McCain knows it, too. Why else would he throw in the towel on his campaign theme right before his own convention?

None of this is a criticism of Sarah Palin, per se. To say she's massively underqualified to be President isn't really much of a knock. She's more qualified than me, for example, but to pretend that she can even hold a candle to Hillary Clinton is ridiculous. Hillary Clinton was one of the prime driving powers behind her husband's ascendancy and Presidency, and she's the only former First Lady to hold elected office (to the U.S. Senate, no less) herself. She's a singularly historic figure and one of the most influential women in the history of our nation -- period. Sarah Palin is a political nobody who was chosen simply for how the GOP thought she'd play in the cheap seats, and she's being used. It's the height of cynicism, misogyny, and contempt for the intelligence of the American people. It's fucking insulting to everybody who worries about the future of our nation. I think everybody who watches her debate Joe Biden (gawd, that's going to be ugly) will come to feel the same way.

That said, it's something of a relief that the McCain campaign is in such dire straits. Maybe nobody else wanted the job? I'd been getting worried to the point that I was doing research on what it would take to immigrate to Australia if McCain won. Looks like I can put that aside.