I'm going to take a break from talking about my experiences in Denver to go to the big news of the day: McCain decided to 'throw deep' and make a very bold, unexpected pick of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska to be his VP nominee. As an aside, the scheduling of both conventions so late, and back to back (first back to back conventions since 1956) has really wrecked havoc with the news cycle. I wonder if the typical convention bounce will happen this year, as McCain just turned all focus on the GOP ticket today after a history-making night for Obama and the Dems.
McCain's pick is a brazen move to appeal to the women's vote, particularly in the aftermath of Obama's passing over of Hillary Clinton. Gov. Palin's resume is thin for someone who would be a heartbeat away from being commander-in-chief. I've said along along that putting a woman on the ticket would be a great move, but McCain had to look way down the bench to find someone who would be acceptable to the right wing of his party. Selecting a Pro-Choice moderate woman would have brought him more swing voters, but since he is beholden to the extremists in his party, Palin was the option.
James Carville was quoted in the National Journal earlier in the week saying that the goal of the VP pick is to make your opponent's campaign manager throw up. I think if I was managing Obama's campaign, I'd have my head in the trashcan right now. A McCain-Pawlenty ticket would have been much easier to game plan against (and a bit of a snoozer). David Plouffe and the rest of the team are going to have to figure out how to attack Palin without stepping on the historical significance of the 2nd woman on a national party ticket. Others will probably try to "Ferraro-ize" her as best they can (recall that Ferraro was dogged during the 84 campaign about investigations into her husband's finances) with the brother-in-law scandal and her ties to big oil.
There is no question that there will be some appeal to a portion of swing voters. In a sense, this provides an opportunity to make history, regardless of which ticket one votes for. Palin dramatically cited the anniversary of women's suffrage in her remarks this morning. Whether or not that resonates with a significant portion of the electorate remains to be seen.
I do think this underlines the misstep that Obama made in not choosing Hillary. I like Biden fine. I like his Catholicism, his working class roots, I loved how he talked about his mom during his speech, and we got to see her reaction -great stuff. I did talk to some Hillary supporters in Denver who had profound disappointment that Hillary was not on the ticket. The vast majority will support Obama-Biden, but all of them would have been tireless fighters in the trenches for the ticket if she was on it. Many still will be, because Obama is the best choice when it comes to "women's issues" (notice the prominent mention of fighting for equal pay in his speech), but we can't deny that the selection of Palin is another crack in the glass ceiling.
I had the privilege of attending both meetings of the Women's Caucus at the DNC. I consider myself a feminist in many ways (more men should consider themselves feminists, especially husbands, brothers, and fathers). As I watched Michelle Obama give a good speech to the caucus, I could not help but feel wistful that once again, it was the spouse of the candidate who was a woman, and not the nominee. What does the selection of Sarah Palin mean to others who may feel that way? I know the Democratic Party and our allies at NOW, Planned Parenthood, and others, will deliver the message that McCain-Palin is wrong on issues like Choice and pay equity, education, etc., but we have a serious fight on our hands. (Hey, did anybody really believe it would be easy?!?!?)
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