Why Palin Is a Desperate Choice

So much for McCain’s talking point that the “war on terror” is the transcendent issue of our time. Because thinking about John McCain’s pick for vice president is absolutely frightening to me. With John McCain turning 72 today, it’s stone cold comfort thinking about Sarah Palin being next in line. Obviously, McCain’s going for the babe factor to counter his geezer quotient. On that he scored. But it’s desperation on display.

Sarah Palin and I have one thing in common. We both did the beauty queen circuit. I won, she didn’t; though she did Vogue and I didn’t. John McCain evidently thinks that’s a pretty good qualification to be vice president, because he’s chosen her to share the ticket with him. It’s his Hail Mary political pass to get some PR going his way, because if McCain didn’t shake this race up he would have been relegated to a footnote of history. But let’s not kid ourselves. After weeks and weeks of being slammed with emails from the McCain campaign, which continually focused on Hillary Clinton and her voters, this is an attempt to peel off disaffected HRC voters who say they won’t vote for Barack Obama. Evidently, the Republicans think women are stupid.

Sarah Palin is not a supporter of women’s civil rights. She’s rabidly anti women’s right to self-determination, which means she’s the conservatives’ darling. But she’s got bigger problems than relegating females to second class citizens. McCain’s against equal pay, so it’s not like he’s picking Palin out of respect. This is desperation time for the Republicans.

Palin is also for drilling in ANWAR, which Democrats are not, including disaffected HRC voters. Oh, and McCain isn’t either, at least not yet, though he’s flip flopped on everything else, so stay tuned. Via email from a good friend, a story about Palin from Fox this past June:

“Folks up here want ANWR to be unlocked by the federal government so that we can drill, so that we can start contributing more to energy independence for the rest of the nation. We’ve got a tremendous amount of resource up here, and we’re ready, willing and able to contribute … when we talk about drilling in ANWR, we’re talking about a 2,000-acre plot of land, which is smaller footprint than, say, LAX, the airport there in L.A. It’s a sliver of land, and it’s very, very rich in resources. And again, we’re ready and willing and able to tape these safely and help secure the U.S.”

But looking on one site that’s got some information on Palin, what’s clear is that she and McCain have little in common.

Let’s face it, Obama was wiping McCain off the PR map. I really questioned if he had the spine to throw this long ball that I saw sitting out there when all the talk was about Mitt. But McCain wants the presidency very much and his people obviously believe that this is the year of the female vote. On that one aspect alone, the choice of Sarah Palin is brilliant.

You see, the vast majority of Americans do not vote on issues. They vote on emotions, which can sometimes be tied to issues, but often are just driven by feelings. It’s the emotion that puts voters in the booths to cast ballots. Why do you think Rove continually makes certain that cultural initiatives are on the ballot come general election time? It gets people to the polls.

However, I’m thinking Palin is more Geraldine Ferraro than anything else, equating McCain to Mondale. Excitement shipped in from the hinterlands to try to keep his candidacy from cratering.

Sarah Palin does guarantee one thing that is sure to annoy Democrats, which is a bonus for McCain and the Republicans. The phrase “Hillary Clinton voters” will be a constant theme throughout the fall campaign. “Disaffected Hillary voters,” McCain concocted myth or not, are here to stay.