All these interruptions! Jeez, what does a man have to do to get Prominent People Who Are Doing Important Things to let him get on with a puny little month-long nap?
Okay, so John McCain has picked Sarah Palin for his running mate. I was against it months ago, more for reasons having to do with Palin’s best interest than anything else really. As I replied to reader Bobbert by e-mail:
I like what I’d been reading about Palin. She’s popular up there in a way that no other governor I know of has been. I thought she could have had a real future in national politics—but this kind of short-circuits that.
Barack Obama has been running for president longer than Palin has been governor. All the enthusiasm for her nationally has to do almost entirely with her second X chromosome and her attractiveness.
Since writing that, I’ve actually seen her (on TV) in action on the stump, at the rally in Ohio where her VP candidacy was announced. I’m warming up to the idea now and getting a much better idea of why she’s as popular in Alaska as she is. Hint: it’s not as much because of X chromosomes up there as it is in the Lower 48.
Also worth bearing in mind is how she got to be governor. She defeated an incumbent Republican governor in the primary, someone who was already a big fish in Alaska politics even before becoming governor (a little more detail here) You don’t do that, even in Alaska, without some chops.
Skeptical or not, there can be no denying McCain is going to reap a bounce from this choice—a bounce Obama didn’t get from his choice of Joe Biden. Furthermore the timing will undoubtedly squelch whatever bounce the Democrats might have hoped for from their convention.
I can begin to imagine that McCain could actually win this more because of votes for the GOP ticket than against Obama.
That would be a heck of an accomplishment for Palin. I just wish it weren’t going to be “asterisked” by the identity-politics angle that has overshadowed this election from the very beginning.
Me? In November, I’m voting for Palin.
Update: Lest anyone think I’ve always been impressed with Palin, or that my turnaround on having her on the ticket is something new, a bit of history:
Sarah Palin? Hickel might as well endorse Michael Palin for all the good it would do in November.»
Alaska Republicans: Democrats’ Best Friend—7/1/06
When Sarah Palin was nominated to run against former Gov. Tony Knowles (D) in Alaska, I was pretty sure Knowles would walk right over her. I was wrong, and I won’t complain about it.»
I Need to Move Around More—11/8/06
