GOP operative shortly after the announcement:"Reckless."re McCain's judgment/decision-making process

[Pirate Smile]

Sarah Surprise
Palin's candidacy is fun to cover but raises serious questions about McCain's judgment.
By John Dickerson

Posted Monday, Sept. 1, 2008, at 9:06 PM ET

Sarah Palin sure is an exciting candidate—to you, to me and maybe even to John McCain. Monday we learned that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. The news probably won't change the political landscape—especially since Barack Obama declared it out of bounds—but the pregnancy is a fitting metaphor for the gestating and growing surprises associated with the Palin candidacy.

Each new fact we learn about Sarah Palin—her reversal on the bridge to nowhere, her disagreements with McCain on issues from windfall profits to global warming, emerging facts about troopergate—contribute to the feeling that this whole Palin thing is being made up as we go along. It may be fun to read about, and it sure is fun to cover, but it also supports the judgment of the Palin pick that I first heard from a Republican veteran shortly after the announcement: "Reckless."

Obama was supposed to be the risky candidate. That's certainly how Republicans have painted him. Judging from how he's run his campaign, though, he's very conservative. Nevertheless, polls have shown that voters think McCain is the less risky pick by as much as 20 percentage points. Now that McCain has made a high-profile decision essentially defined by its riskiness—observers have called it a "Hail Mary pass" so often, I'm starting to think it's a play for the Catholic vote—the question is whether McCain has squandered his advantage with voters on the question of risk.

All vice presidential rollouts have bumpy patches. (Biden seems to have missed any big problems, but there's still time.) Yet because McCain chose Palin quickly, at the last minute, and with little personal contact, the little inconsistencies now bubbling up may reflect more negatively on his judgment than they would have with a more considered pick.

-snip-
But it's not just journalists who have questions. Undecided independent voters may, too—not just about Palin, but about McCain's judgment and decision-making process. With each new surprise, the pressure increases on Palin to perform well and validate McCain's instinct. It's the first most important thing she can do for her new boss.

http://www.slate.com/id/2199058/