As death flutters around the back-yard deck of Senator John McCain, it’s sad to read reports that the scrappy Sandcutter regrets picking Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate and wishes he had instead picked Senator Jos. Lieberman. The only person diminished by this kind of talk is Senator McCain himself, and the heroic Arizonan deserves better.
Not that we lack for love of Mr. Lieberman. The Sun was the first newspaper to sketch the rationale for Mr. McCain to bring in Mr. Lieberman as his running mate. That was in an enthusiastic editorial called “The Logic of Lieberman.” We issued it shortly after Mr. Lieberman delivered at the Commentary dinner a speech that left us with the view that as a running mate he’d be “fabulous.”
That was in May 2008. In August, Mr. McCain turned to Mrs. Palin. We were thrilled with that choice, too, calling it a “brilliant pick.” We’ve never abandoned that opinion (nor, until the latest reports, had Mr. McCain). As the campaign faltered, our view was that it was because of the kinds of errors that could be laid only to the candidate at the top of the ticket.
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