6 things the Palin pick says about McCain

[Richard D]

The selection of a running mate is among the most consequential, most defining decisions a presidential nominee can make. John McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says a lot about his decison-making — and some of it is downright breathtaking.

We knew McCain is a politician who relishes improvisation, and likes to go with his gut. But it is remarkable that someone who has repeatedly emphasized experience in this campaign named an inexperienced governor he barely knew to be his No. 2. Whatever you think of the pick, here are six things it tells us about McCain:

1. He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters — and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election — and very sick of the Bush years.

Worth reading: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080830/pl_politico/12997;_ylt=Atq55PGpCgGqHBQKIm_I3FADW7oF

[Diane R]

1. K&R This is fabulous.

[Vincardog]

2. The word insiders are afraid to speak LANDSLIDE

[L. Coyote]

3. "McCain only spoke with Palin about the vice presidency for the first time on Sunday"

Romney was the pick, until the 5 million $$$ and seven houses gaffe's altered the political landscape!!!

[Gman]

4. #1 Desperation was my initial reaction

because the Palin pick reeks of desperation. It's acknowledging that McCain must bow to the radical fundies on choice. But more importantly, it is an acknowledgement that McCain absolutely must have the mythical Hillary disenchanted supporters. It's swinging for the fence when it's the bottom of the seventh inning, he's got a full count, two outs, no one on base and down 10 runs. There's still time to get back in it but you have to be methodical, not go for everything at once. (sorry for the sports metaphor...)

[Demeter]

5. He WAS Considering Lieberman!

Son of a gun!

And this Sarah Palin is just as good! Maybe better!

:rofl:

[Phred42]

7. Can you imagine how pissed off LIEbermann and Romney and the others must be

:woohoo:

:popcorn:

[Demeter]

10. Party Unity--Nothing Like It

and believe me, this is nothing like it!

[Phred42]

6. K&R - Excellent analysis

[Lithos]

8. In a nutshell, it seems this pick was based on...

1) His need to placate and energize his fundie base, it was a bone to them as they were increasingly being turned off (and not likely to vote).
2) His need to try and get out from under the Bush umbrella; i.e. Obama's campaign of "Eight is enough" was proving devastating.
3) He needed the attention and to get people to look at him again.
4) His need to not appear as an old white guy.

That said, the speed he did this shows his desparation.

Some thoughts here:

- He turned his biggest strength (claims of National experience) into his biggest weakness.
- She is coming with a ton of baggage which I'm sure his own staff missed as she was not vetted sufficiently enough.
- "Power before Principal" will fail miserably as her lapses in judgement, experience and ethics come to light.
- He did this in order to try and shake things up, catch Obama/Biden as unprepared. I think this may have worked in the past for him when he was only running for Senate and in what was old school politics where people were not very imaginative, but the strength of Obama's campaign has always been flexibility. I think this shows McCain being even more out of touch with "today" then ever before.

[Tutonic]

9. #7 He's a got a fatalist streak.

[mwb970]

11. Boy, that's awful.

What a condemnation of McCain. Shark, consider yourself jumped.

[underpants]

12. Mike Allen contributed to this report.

Gee, I wonder which parts :silly:

I just read this and was about to post it.

This is desperation and from the story at the link below it is actually making sense (in a frightening way) he was either told or realized that he had to appease the higher powers/Council of elders of the christian reconstructionist/dominionist movements

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/163234/559/495/579213