McCain Creates Ironic Empathy
Between Limbaugh and McCain Wings of GOP

In McCain’s naming Palin, an unintended consequence happened in one fell swoop. Rush Limbaugh and all other branches of "real," "true," and "far-right" conservatives understood why people like me have loved John McCain for all these years. At that same moment, I understand precisely why they have hated him. This was a McCain-being- McCain move. Many of you have called, e-mailed and texted me in the last few days to ask what I thought and why I had done something unusual: had an unpublished thought. The simple truth is that I have been too infuriated–and still am. I will speak to the PRO’s and CON’s of the move and will first acknowledge two things:

1. I totally understand the political strategy of the pick and realize it may work.
2. It is a stupid, reckless, mistake.

In the first few hours after the naming of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, I was delighted with the euphoria expressed by Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson, two people I don’t care for and, in the case of Dobson, someone I don’t respect. Shoring up support among people who have long, vocally and viscerally disdained McCain felt great. Several people whose instincts are solid and whose opinions I respect contacted me to give thumbs up. My response which affirmed their opinion was not hypocritical on my part. Rather, I was impressed by the euphoria even as my own thought were yet unformed.

PROS...
1. Shores up conservatives. The support of Limbaugh and Dobson reflect huge amounts of solid support in every corner of this country.
2. Game changer. This was an infusion of energy, surprise and relative youth into the campaign.
3. Palin’s limited record is impressive as a reformer, a maverick who has bucked her party, most notably beating the incumbent GOP governor and going after corruption among Republicans like Alaska US Senator Ted Stephens.
4. Her family and their *choice* to have a Down’s Syndrome baby are heart warming and a way for the GOP to bring a young family into the national consciousness.
5. There is a sense in which having a red meat conservative like Palin on the ticket "frees McCain to be McCain." The idea is that before and after the election, Palin will be sent out to keep the conservatives happy. Judgement neutral, this was the same rationale President Bush Sr. Used in naming Dan Quayle. Quayle did a good job of that despite his handful of gaffes that landed him relentless criticism.
6. Palin is discounted by the liberal press as being able to court disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters. While this largely and logically true, she only needs to attract a small number of them in a close election to make a difference.
7. If they win, the GOP will deliver the first woman to the Vice-Presidency. Unless she assumes the office, she will never be elected in her own right. Vice-Presidents seldom get elected President. President Bush, Sr., was the first Vice-President in 150 years to become President without assuming the office. She would doubtless face more formidable and credible opponents in Mitt Romney, et al.

CONS...
1. Qualifications. Sarah Palin is woefully inadequate to be the President of the United States. I have memorized the GOP talking point about how she is more qualified than Obama. That is debatable and misses the point.
I agree with Doris Kearns Goodwin who says there are only three days when the Vice-President matters:
--The day they are selected.
--Election Day. Palin may help McCain. I have two doubts. First, conservatives would have voted for McCain any way. Second, no Vice-President has ever been credited with winning the election for the President. JFK believed he needed LBJ in 1960 to win Texas. I think Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley had more to do with Kennedy winning than Johnson.
--The Day they must assume the presidency.
Palin does fine on the first two days but falls short on the third. If the Presidency is not a place for on the job training as every candidate for President, save Obama, declared this year, the same is true for the person a heart beat away from the oldest President. The man who aspires to be the oldest President in American history shows a disdain for the Vice-Presidency and the one in five Americans who believe his age is a reason to vote against him.

2. Ideology. I believe the American people would be better served if the Democratic Party was less controlled by far left liberals and if the GOP was less controlled by far right conservatives. I would prefer a Republican presidency like Eisenhower, Ford or Bush I. The Palin pick over Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman does not help that cause.

McCain should have named Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney or Susan Collins.

PS--My concerns about Sarah Palin's extreme views...

Sarah Palin believes that abortion should be illegal under ALL circumstances, including rape and incest. In this premise, she is far beyond the American mainstream.

Sarah Palin rejects not only gay marriage but supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage something President Bush used as an election wedge issue but never actually believed in or promoted. 60% of Americans oppose gay marriage. However, 66% of Americans support some type of domestic partnership/civil unions for gay couples Sarah Palin does not. Here again, her views are not within mainstream America.

In 1992, Sarah Palin supported the insurgent Republican presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan.

In 2000, rejecting Bush and McCain, she supported Buchanan’s kamikaze run with the Reform Party.

Sarah Palin belongs to a church which believes the world was created in six days, interprets the Bible literally, and believes that Jesus will return via "Rapture." In this premise, which is not supported by credible biblical scholarship, the chosen will rise up into the sky with Jesus while the non-chosen remain. On top of that, the chosen will rise without their clothes and everything else will continue here. So, for instance, if a bus driver is chosen, non-chosen bus passengers would experience a bus that is still running, at least temporarily, with the bus drivers clothes on his or her chair and the bus drivers cap probably on the steering wheel. These beliefs are as far to the right as Obama’s church is to the left without anti-American rhetoric.