WP editorial: Mr. McCain's Choice; "Count us among the puzzled and the skeptical."

[DeepModem Mom]

Mr. McCain's Choice
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has some appealing qualities. But could she step in as president?
Saturday, August 30, 2008

....There is no surprise in the fact that Ms. Palin is a conservative on the issues that matter most to the Republican Party's base. She is an opponent of abortion and a particularly outspoken advocate of letting oil and gas companies drill on public lands -- including Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a position that not even Mr. McCain, who favors offshore drilling, has embraced. But politically, Mr. McCain's choice was a stunner. He has bypassed safer choices, such as Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and current Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, in favor of a relative unknown.

Now Mr. McCain can say he is giving voters a chance to make history by electing the first woman to be vice president. He is also hoping Ms. Palin's down-to-earth "hockey mom" persona will appeal to those working-class Democrats, especially women, who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary -- though many supporters of abortion rights may be insulted by that proposition.

But the most important question Mr. McCain should have asked himself about Ms. Palin was not whether she could help him win the presidency. It was whether she is qualified and prepared to serve as president should anything prevent him from doing so. This would have been true for any presidential nominee, and it was especially crucial that Mr. McCain -- who turns 72 today -- get this choice right. If he is elected, he will be the oldest man ever to serve a first term in the White House.

In this regard, count us among the puzzled and the skeptical. Not long ago, no less a Republican strategist than Karl Rove belittled Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as a potential running mate for Barack Obama, noting that picking him would appear "intensely political" because Mr. Kaine's experience consisted of only three years as governor preceded by the mayoralty of Richmond, which Mr. Rove called "not a big town."

Using Mr. Rove's criteria, Ms. Palin would not fare well. Her executive experience consists of less than two years as governor of her sparsely populated state, plus six years as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 8,471). Absorbed in Alaska's unique energy and natural resource issues, she has barely been heard from in the broader national debates over economic policy and health care. Above all, she has no record on foreign policy and national security -- including terrorism, which Mr. McCain posits as the top challenge facing America and the world. Once the buzz over Ms. Palin's nomination dies down, the hard questions about her will begin. The answers will reflect on her qualifications -- and on Mr. McCain's judgment as well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/29/AR2008082902273.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Divine Discontent]

1. powerful! thank you

literally a STUNNINGLY bad choice, it doesn't get MUCH worse... this is great as long as they LOSE!

MORE AT www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[nc4bo]

2. sniff-sniff, is that the smell of fresh dissent in the air?

Any time your (other) base is wondering wtf is going on, there's a confirmed problem.

Whichever way the rethugs try to pull this off, Team O's got some hot Chicago politics waiting for them.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. This encourages me. Cable news was loving this choice...

because it makes a big story they can run with. But I'm wondering if, once this news sinks in, people are going to say, OMG, what has McCain done? I've heard from a friend with links to some pretty powerful economic (not fundie) conservatives that they are utterly shocked, and some thinking about staying home on Election Day.

[Doremus]

3. K&R

[peacebird]

4. She is anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-gun, pro-big oil, & claims to be Christian. She is perfect.

She will bring the redneck red-letter christians to the McLame side. She must be taken as a serious threat - we need to look into the allegations that Gary Lundgren was allowed to buy the land that her sports complex was to be built on, and that it cost her small town 10 times what it should have because of that. Is he a donor or friend?

We need more info on her - what of the on-going investigation (BY THE REPUKES) into her trying to get her former brother in law (a state trooper) fired because he was in a nasty child custody case with her sister?

[democraticjohn]

7. Red Neck Red Letter Conservative Christians....

are trying to figure out why Gasoline costs $4 a gallon now, when it cost $1 a gallon when Bush was selected by the Supreme Court, and why the war in Iraq made oil prices quadruple. These are people like Palin and her family, who, although not poor, are hard working folks trying to feed their family on a high school education salary for the man, and the woman staying home to home-school the kids in the Bible and how to make macaroni and cheese for supper.

Palin is such an exception to these Red Neck, Red Letter Conservative Christians, she has a job as a Governor!

I think she'll be a laughing stock of America, fodder for the late night talk shows in 3 weeks. She has sacrificed the well-being of her children for her own ego.

If, (somehow) McCain and Palin win the election in November, I think Canada and the UK better get ready for 40,000,000 applications for new citizens from the USA. The end of the U S of America!

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Thanks for posting, democraticjohn -- welcome to DU!

[CJCRANE]

6. The Rovepublicans are incompetent amateurs. nt