Well, as of right now, August 29, 10:06 AM CDT, this pick has not been made official, and I’ll believe it if and when McCain makes this announcement. But I’ll answer this assuming it is true.
Bwahahhhaaahahahahaaah, snort, choke.
As an ardent Obama supporter from day one, if this turns out to be true, I couldn’t be happier. Because 1) it undercuts McCain’s whole “experience” argument which seems to be the entire cornerstone of his debate. Many are looking far more to McCain’s VP pick than to Obama’s because McCain is turning 72 today, and he has had cancer, actuaries would not give him the best odds on being able to serve 8 years much less 4. People kind of want someone in the #2 spot who is seen as a strong leader, certainly what he have here is a name picked from relative obscurity. And 2) it pretty much blows his cred with the independents if he picks an ultra conservative #2. McCain has been trying to be two people…on one hand he has had to move considerably to the right over the last 2 years so that his voting record puts him lock step with the Bush agenda. But he’s been trying to run on his “maverick”, bi-partisan reputation from 2000, and in large part any success he’s had has been because he’s focused on his opponent’s weaknesses, rather than his strengths. Picking a pro-life governor of a low population state, particularly one who is fairly young and fairly inexperienced while making a lot of hay about how his opponent is young and inexperienced is going to more than counteract the “hey, look, I picked a woman wow factor.
And I think there’s another downside for him. His record on women’s issues is positively abyssmal. To anyone who in this day and age actually pays attention to things such as issues, as silly and inconsequential as they may seem to some, this is going to seem like another in a long series of panders. It’s going to seem to the pro-Hillary crowd as a cynical move to try to peel off support in a misguided belief that a vote for one woman is the same as the vote for any other woman. In short, I think this solidifies the message that McCain thinks women are by and large interechangable.
Bad, bad pick that he won’t even realize is a bad pick until it’s too late. I hope this is accurate…please, please…about the only thing worse for McCain would be Pawlenty…at least no bridges have fallen down in Alaska recently.