Salon: 2 year anniv. of the Palin plague is the result of "the gut call made by one 72-year-old man"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010 09:01 ET
We came so close to never meeting Sarah Palin
Two years ago this week, a 72-year-old man's arbitrary impulses made Sarah Palin a star



Two years ago this week, John McCain woke up in a particular mood and changed American politics and culture. You remember how it happened: As Barack Obama prepared to deliver his acceptance speech at Denver's Mile High Stadium On August 28, 2008, word leaked that McCain, whose own convention would begin a few days later, had finally decided on a running-mate. But who?

For once, the press was genuinely stumped. McCain had been unusually successful at shielding his deliberations. The consensus of the political class was that he would tab Tim Pawlenty -- not because Pawlenty was a particularly compelling prospect, but only because the rest of the names supposedly in the mix made little sense. Joe Lieberman was anathema to the base, Tom Ridge was pro-choice, and Mitt Romney was on McCain's enemies list, and so on. No one really made sense, so Pawlenty it was.

Only the next morning, as confusing early news reports that many observers initially disbelieved began to sink in, did it become clear that McCain had tabbed the little-known first-term governor of Alaska. And almost immediately, it became clear just how impetuous his selection of Sarah Palin was -- how little McCain and his team had actually known about the 44-year-old, and how little she knew about the world.

Not that it mattered. Palin was an instant political and cultural sensation -- and she's proven to be an enduring one, too. But as we mark the second anniversary of her national debut, it's worth remembering just how arbitrary the whole thing was. The only reason anyone knows Sarah Palin's name today, the only reason she's become a media and marketing powerhouse, the only reason she's become the most sought-after endorser in Republican politics, the only reason she up and left as governor in the middle of her term, and the only reason she might run for president in two years is because of the gut call made by one 72-year-old man.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/31/palin_arbitrary_vp/index.html

[ladywnch]

1. McCain should have taken a few Tums before he made his selection!

think of the innocent words that could have been spared!

[LynneSin]

2. Only reason: Because McCain thought we women voted with our ovaries

we aren't that stupid!

[LeftinOH]

3. She cost him some votes; we should be glad he chose her (I am). n/t

[Cirque du So-What]

4. Proof that those who think with their gut

have shit for brains. It was bad enough when WhistleAss carried the nuclear football, but it would have been horrific if McAnus were able to call a nuke strike whenever the mood struck. We're fortunate, however, that McAnus 'went with his gut' and chose Caribou Barbie; if he'd gone with a middle-aged white man, GOOPers may have found the wherewithal to actually get the MFer elected.

[Scurrilous]

5. A plague indeed.

K & R :thumbsup:

[rocktivity]

6. That means it's also the second anniversary of my writing this:

In appointing Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, John McCain has taken his trump card off the table...

(T)here’s a very good reason to believe that McCain didn’t do the actual picking: it’s also been reported that McCain has met Palin only twice previously. If that’s true, it confirms Obama’s contention that the McCain administration will be a carbon copy of George W. Bush’s--right down to powers behind the throne making all the decisions...

If McCain doesn’t realize that Palin takes away his best argument against Obama (too young and inexperienced) and strengthens Obama’s best arguments against him (too out of touch with social reality; too loyal to the neoconservative status quo), then he is grossly unqualified for the job of being in charge of the Free World.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/rocknation/369

:bounce:
rocktivity