Is Sarah Palin Really a Maverick Choice
Nicole Stockdale, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, asks a very telling question. The key point in answering is the rumor that McCain really wanted to name Joe Lieberman or maybe Tom Ridge. The rumors of late and insufficient vetting of Sarah Palin reinforce the belief that McCain had someone else in mind.
Last week, there were reports that Karl Rove himself called Lieberman to ask him to take his name out of the running. Lieberman declined. The impression is that McCain came under enormous pressure from the right wing, even threats of a floor fight against Lieberman or Ridge or any other vice presidential pick who wasn't deemed conservative enough.
If even half of the numerous reports are even halfway accurate, the conclusion is inescapable. McCain caved to rightwing pressure at the last minute to name hardcore conservative and hastily named Palin, who is popular with this crowd.
So, to answer Stockdale's question, no, Sarah Palin was not a maverick choice by John McCain. It was a surrender to the conservatives who have had Republican Party politics under their control for a generation. McCain, who once rightfully deserved the description of maverick, is now tamed and bridled and working as a pack horse for the far right.
Palin Family Matters
The news that Sarah Palin's unmarried seventeen year old daughter is pregnant has been heating up the blogosphere since it became known just a day ago. There are too many blog items to count just on The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog. Reaction seems to be of three kinds...
First, that the pregnancy somehow shows that the Sarah Palin herself is an unfit mother or lacks family values. Or that the child's decision not to abort the baby somehow shows just how strong the Palin family values are.
Second, that the pregnancy should be a private, family matter, but Sarah Palin crossed that line by revealing other private, family matters in a bid to gain political advantage. Her son Track isn't mentioned without adding that he joined the military and is due to deployed to Iraq. Her son Trig can't be mentioned without bragging how he's a Down-syndrome baby that mother Sarah didn't abort him. Critics complain that Sarah Palin ought to stick to the facts and not try to spin them to her advantage. By spinning, she can't really complain when her opponents spin the same facts to her disadvantage.
But there's a third reaction. It's the reaction of Barack Obama, who says all this talk of the Palin family should be off limits. He doesn't criticize Palin, either for what's happened in her family, or how she has tried to spin it to the press. Instead, he says the whole subject is off limits. Instead, he wants to talk about the economy, health care, energy, the war, etc. He may not be able to control what his supporters on all the blogs say about Palin, but he does control what he and his campaign staff say. Classy guy, that Obama.
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