It's time to concentrate our fire as Palinpalooza threatens to become a carnival of scandals and flaps. I think we should stay away from the pregnant daughter issue -- it is what it is, as they say, and it's public already. Not only is it irrelevant to everything we care about on our side, it is out there now and if anyone on the Republican side is going to be bothered by it they will hear plenty about it with no help from us. The press loves this kind of story. And it has the most potential to be turned back against Democrats as an attack on private, family matters -- if you're a Republican this story has faux outrage potential written all over it.
Instead, we should be concentrating our fire here:
"They didn’t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before," said a Republican close to the campaign. "This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge."
This is a goldmine, let's get cracking...
Some questions that folks should be asking the McCain campaign right about now:
1) Who's running McCain's campaign?
Isn't he the deciderer? He can't do what he wants? Is that how he'll run (or not run) his presidency? Who would be in charge in a McCain administration?
Note that this cuts both ways: The social values conservatives out there will be afraid McCain is going to cut them loose and do what he really wants if he becomes president. At heart, and once the electoral calculations go out the window, he's a Lieberman or Ridge kind of guy, not a true social conservative. For the moderates out there in love with his "maverick" image have to fear another president who professed one thing (remember "compassionate conservatism") but who can't or won't stand up for his professed convictions. Who will be calling the shots for McCain? Who will be the next Cheney?
This is also needs to be hit as a leadership issue. Obama runs his own campaign, and that has never been questioned. He calls the shots. He chose his VP. Even if you think he should have, he did not bow to pressure to pick Clinton. He runs his campaign, no drama.
2) He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.
Stop snickering -- I'm not thinking of the sex scandal angle here. The point is, McCain wanted Joe. He wanted Ridge. Pawlenty seems to have been vetted carefully as well. So Palin was, at best, his third or fourth choice. How can McCain expect to attract women or social conservatives by choosing Palin, when it's clear that she was not the pick he would have made if he could.
3)Why did the Republicans have to scramble to make this last minute pick?
Four or five days to vet Palin? That's unbelievable. McCain has been the presumptive nominee since March. He had about six months to make up his mind and choose a veep. And he is literally scrambling in the last couple days before his convention to make up his mind?
I know it is a bit much to expect the press to ever run with a "Repubs in disarry" story for more than a minute or two, but isn't this what we are seeing? This begs for at least two weeks of damaging procedural stories. What's going on behind the scenes here? If there aren't any leaks, speculation will do. Did tension between the "maverick's" more centrist tendencies (Joe, Ridge) and the need to mollify the base and fire up social conservatives (Palin) create a last minute impass? Who called the shots, and who lost? Did Joe and Ridge turn him down? Or was this a case of McCain and Candidate McCain arguing with each other and unable to make up their mind until time ran out? Were the Republicans surprised at and unprepared for the Democrats strength? Were they reeling from an unexpectedly strong Dem Convention? Did they have internal polling showing McCain in deep trouble and in need of a hail mary? Or is McCain just a really, really terrible leader? Inquiring minds want to know...
4) Is the Republican brand so tarnished that McCain had to pick a candidate entirely off the national Republican radar?
McCain had to run all the way to Alaska to find a suitable candidate. Isn't there a single Repubican household name they could have picked? Ridge is a well groomed candidate, Mr. Homeland Security after all. That's Republican turf. But so is the anti-choice agenda, and he's not on board. The fact McCain was even looking at Lieberman (who's not even technically a Republican yet) speaks volumes. What about Pawlenty? But instead they call up Sarah Palin, the Republican equivalent of a promising but unknown pitcher from the AA Anchorage squad, whose never has not even seen AAA hitting, let alone made an appearance in the major leagues. She'll be pitching game 2 in the postseason, right after the Repubs' shaky ace McCain. It you wonder, where is the Republican leadership?
He wanted Joe. He wanted Ridge. At the last minute, he chose Palin. Why?