Sarah Palin, Take One

As the whole world knows by now, last week John McCain announced that he had selected Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his Vice presidential pick. Like everyone else outside of Alaska, my first thought was: Who?

After several days of 24 hour news coverage, a number of negatives, and potential negatives have come to light regarding Governor Palin. Some of the fodder for attacks against her was apparent immediately. Before being elected governor of Alaska in 2006, her total experience as an elected official was as city councilwoman and mayor of Wassila, Alaska, a small town of about 10,000.

Some of the other issues surrounding Palin are that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant, as mayor of Wassila she hired a lobbyist to get earmarked money (a practice she now opposes), and she has been accused of firing a member of her cabinet because he would not fire her ex-brother-in-law as a state trooper. Oh, yes, her husband had a DUI twenty years ago.

The fact that Sarah Palin was a relative unknown, new to the national media spotlight, combined with these revelations about her past, have made many in the media speculate that she was insufficiently vetted for the VP slot.

In spite of these concerns, I think that John McCain made a brilliant political move with this pick.

Both campaigns selected VP candidates to combat perceived weaknesses of the presidential candidate. Barack Obama picked Joe Biden to shore up the tickets foreign policy credentials. John McCain picked Sarah Palin. What does she bring to the party?
-As a pro-life, NRA lifetime member, she energizes the Republican base of social conservatives, who have never been excited about McCain.
-At 44 years old, she counterbalances the 72 year old McCain, bringing a sense of youth to the ticket.
-As a governor, she has more executive experience than the rest of both tickets combined. She is also a politician who is a complete Washington outsider. You could not get farther from Washington and stay in the continental US. This co-opts Obama’s theme of change, and reinforces McCain’s reputation as a maverick, independent of the current administration.
-Did I mention that she’s a woman? Both tickets now offer a chance to make a historic choice.

Sarah Palin also brings a stealth weapon to the campaign: her husband, Todd Palin. A large part of why Hillary Clinton was able to stay in the primary race for so long was because Barack Obama could not “close the deal” with a key demographic in big industrial states: white, blue collar men. Todd Palin is the epitome of that demographic. He works as a production operator in the oil industry, when he’s not working as a commercial salmon fisherman. In his off time, he wins long distance endurance snowmobile races. The “First Dude” of Alaska is clearly a man’s man.

Reformer, fiscal and social conservative, telegenic hockey mom with five kids. Sarah Palin is the red state answer to Carla Bruni Sarkozy.