Sarah Palin - Big Mistake

When I first heard that Sarah Palin was John McCain’s choice for the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate for his ticket I was surprised. Initially it seems like it had the potential to take the wind from Barack Obama’s sails after a brilliant convention speech in Denver.

But actually, when thinking about it, it seems to me that Sarah Palin is likely to be a terrible mistake for John McCain. Incidentally that is not a bad thing; anything that improves Obama’s chances is fine by me.

Firstly let’s look at Palin’s 17 year old daughter. Oh dear, she is 5 months pregnant and unmarried. Don’t worry though, the gun-wielding anti-choice Alaskan Governor will ensure there is a shotgun wedding. Now while it would be fair to say that family should be off-limits, the reality is that the electorate in America will take it until account. Palin would have been partly chosen because of her appeal to the socially-conservative Republican base that McCain has struggled with. This doesn’t help.

Palin is very inexperienced. She has only been the Governor of the population-tiny Alaska for 2 years – which is next to nothing. The Vice Presidency is the role which is almost solely in existence to assume the Presidency should needs be. McCain is 72. Now that is old and presents a very real chance that if he were elected, he would die in office. Given that, people will take a close look at the running mate, being inexperienced is unlikely to do his campaign any favours. And you have to admit, when you see the two together, next to the 44 year-old, McCain does look old.

The inexperience also presents another problem: being terribly under-qualified and a woman, leaves McCain open to accusations of tokenism. Some people voted for Hillary not just because she was the first woman with a chance but because she was the first woman who was able to fight for the Presidency on her own merits and was qualified. McCain looks like he is grabbing for Hillary voters with a cynical and cheap punt at female votes. Many, rightly, will just be insulted.

The truth for McCain is that he was doing quite well, but now, he has been blown off course and most of that is his own fault.