Palin

I’m finding it very hard to be worried about this. There are a few candidate worries, sure. There is the direct appeal to Hillary supporters. There is the fact that, as one friend-of-pickle pointed out, she self-describes as a “hockey mom,” which helps in such hockey playing states as Massachusetts and Minnesota, and more importantly, this particular friend-of-pickle’s home state of Michigan. And there is the fact that she appears to have a chance of rallying some conservatives for whom McCain’s pledges to appoint pro-life justices and to rattle the saber at every opportunity haven’t quite done the trick. But do any of those worries really worry me? Do they worry you?

This just strikes me as classic can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees thinking by the McCain campaign, and so a bad strategic blunder. The selection of Sarah Palin seriously undermines the only criticism of Obama that has really stuck – that he has too little experience to be President, that he is a lightweight, that he is not ready to lead. What is plausibly true about someone with Obama’s CV but false in his specific case appears to be very true in her specific case. I can’t believe how unqualified she is to be President. McCain is 72 years old. It’s a shockingly irresponsible choice. There may have been good strategic arguments for picking her, but the idea should have been rejected on its face. I trust that most Americans will see that, and that not only will her presence on the ticket cause them to think twice about voting for McCain, but that his decision to pick her - this mayor of nowhere, this sports journalist, this woman who would have to be something really special to elevate this quickly, but who he appears not to have taken any time at all to get to know - reflects very poorly on his judgment.