Update (7 p.m.): Well said, Dr. Laura.
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I’ll go against the conservative blogosphere grain and state my confusion over and disappointment in John McCain’s choice of running mate. I think Sarah Palin, a relatively unknown female governor from Alaska, is a bad choice.
I came to this conclusion before I found out Palin has a five-month-old infant (I believe mothers [and fathers, OK?] should raise their children) and a knocked up teenage age daughter (who ought to give up the baby for adoption to an older, married, two-parent family) or that she’s under investigation for ethics violations.
[Commenters are complaining about my using the term "knocked up." I don't remember anyone complaining about how ungracious or unloving the term was when I used it to describe non-conservative unmarried pregnant women, namely, Crystal Mangum, false "Duke lacrosse" rape accuser. Anyway, I'm glad the kids are getting married, but I won't apologize for using the term. Some of you are disagreeing with me for the first time. You have plenty of company! I manage to offend liberals and conservatives, believers and unbelievers. I blog about my views, popular or unpopular. I describe things in politically incorrect ways. I've been deleted from plenty of blogrolls, RSS feed readers, and bookmarks, and I imagine this post will tick off even more readers and bloggers. "Knocked up" is vulgar, I agree, but I use it to make a point.]
Granted, Palin has loads more executive experience than Barack Obama, even as mayor of a town of 7,000 people. I’ll even go so far as to say she’s exceedingly more qualified to be president than he is. And she’s pro-life, a huge plus in my book. But come on.
McCain can’t play the little-experience or pandering cards against Obama anymore, and he needed every advantage he could get his hands on. Why weaken the older-wiser-prison-of-war advantage? By choosing a hardly-qualified person for such a high-profile position, he brings that wisdom into question. (Am I contradicting myself when I note that Palin is more experienced than Obama while claiming McCain can’t play the little-experience card against Obama? As a commenter pointed out, an underqualified presidential candidate is more problematic than an underqualified vice presidential candidate, so McCain can still play the card, I suppose.) And if he’s trying to appeal to Hillary Clinton’s supporters, he’s wasting valuable time and money. Why would liberal, pro-child killing women warm to Palin, conservative and pro-life, just because she’s a woman?
I think it was a stunt, badly played. Despite what the McCain camp claims, I don’t think Sarah Palin was properly vetted or her selection well thought out.
If McCain wanted to “reach out” to women and evangelical Christians, he should have picked a more qualified and well-known and less quirky and troublesome person than Sarah Palin.
I’m sure Palin’s a nice lady and all, but…
George Bush deeply disappointed me when it came to illegal immigration, but I voted for him in 2004 anyway, because nothing in the earth or on it or under it would have compelled me to vote for John Kerry. I don’t like John McCain, but nothing in the earth or on it or under it will compel me to vote for Barack Obama. I’d rather see McCain and Palin in the White House than Obama and Biden.
It stinks, the whole thing. But that’s politics.
More at Memeorandum.
