I wasn't too impressed by Obama's choice of Joe Biden as a running mate. Of those names being bandied about as possible candidates he was the one I least liked...with the exception of Hillary. As a teacher I don't have much sympathy for repeat plagiarists. Plus, if Obama's running on a change platform, selecting a three decade senator hardly qualifies as outside the beltway thinking. I do like that Biden takes the train back home everyday like millions of us who belong to Orwell's upper-lower middle-class.As uninspiring as Biden's selection it towers over McCain's ridiculous choice. I like the fact that Palin is pro-life and a Christian...but that's about it. She may be an admirable woman but I'm not a big fan of NRA membership and those who are pro-oil drilling in ANWR since ANWR, according the U.S. government, would only lower gas prices about 2 cents a gallon. But that's a debate for another day. Palin's biggest benefactor in Alaska is Ted Stevens...a senator recently indicted on corruption charges and notoriously in the pocket of big oil. Not good company to keep.
McCain's judgement has always been questionable. From being censured for ethical violations during the Keating Five scandal, to committing adultery, to bragging about his college drinking binges, to seeking out John Hagee's (a man as nutty as Jeramiah Wright) endorsement, to singing "bomb bomb Iran", to supporting the war in Iraq, to questionable dealings with Arizona lobbyists, to considering switching to the Democratic party...twice...McCain's judgement skills are dubious at best. And now he adds another major strike against his judgement.
McCain is 72 years old. He has had four bouts with cancer. And he picks someone who has been a governor of the least populated state in the U.S. for less than two years to be a heartbeat away from the most complex and demanding job on Earth? Two years ago Palin was the mayor of a town of 9,000 residents. And for just 23 months she has governed a state that is basically a subsidized colony of the United States. This is who McCain saw as qualified to run the United States of America in a crisis?
Palin has zero foreign policy experience. And she asked yesterday what experience does a vice-president need. Such a statement displays amazing naivete. Sure, the office of VP may not be worth a warm bucket of spit, as once eloquently stated by John Nance Garner. But when the President is 72 years old...you might want to have a VP who's qualified to step behind the big desk at a moment's notice.
I'm not a big fan of Biden...but the selection of Palin is pure idiocy on McCain's part. Maybe I'll be proven wrong in November. Maybe she'll mobilize a dis-affected conservative base...Dobson's already jumped back on the bandwagon. But I think that once the initial excitement and novelty of the choice wears off people will start to wonder about McCain's sanity.
This choice may go down as bad a Quayle and even Perot's choice of that crazy admiral Stockdale back in 1992.
