Palin Comparison

Sen. John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate. Details are a click away, but here’s quick thoughts from the hour since the announcement.

McCain just evened the Brick odds of winning. Once the primaries indicated the top candidates, I never saw him as beating Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., outside of calamitous news or solid scandal (both these men can beat down soft scandals).

• It’s Iraq and Afghanistan — and now likely Russia.
• It’s the early symptoms of an economic depression — let’s call it what it is — but at a time when it can be reversed in months not years.
• It’s jumping gasoline prices with Detroit years away from making sensible cars — at a time when global warming effects seem to be accelerating.

McCain just won a battle with a poor military tactic: He won the proverbial last battle, not looking to any of the likely future battles. The old battle is over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s supporters. If they haven’t endorsed Obama, they’re still progressive sorts, not likely to be wooed by a conservative, perky, intelligent lady. Conversely, war, economy and environment are not old battles, they’re current wars. Obama was looking ahead when he picked Sen. Joe Biden for his political and foreign policy acumen. If Obama was looking at the past, he never would have chosen a man with Biden’s history. The Biden-Palin debate scheduled for Oct. 2 will prove the former’s tact: How can he flaunt her inexperience while avoiding the playground stigma of “hitting a girl”?

McCain just returned to his feisty, independent reputation, a plus in my book for these soon-to-be-hard times. Can you imagine his campaign managers and veteran GOP officials for continuous days begging him to pick anyone but Sarah Palin? Pleading, whining, threatening. …

I can’t wait for the tell-all, behind-the-scenes memoirs — coming late this winter if McCain-Palin lose and in the next decade if they win.

-30-