Touché! McCain's Audacious Pick

I was completely out of the media loop yesterday, having left all the political hoopla aside so I could attend to an important and wonderful domestic event. So by the time I learned of Sen. John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, the chattering classes were already deep into their analysis. In fact, the only thing I first gleaned from the car radio was that a woman had been picked; being on the road, I called my wife to ask her what she could find out for me. In seconds, she was reading online news accounts: in one ear I had news, in the other, there was fevered reaction.

In haste, because I haven't much time this morning (and because I slept in far too late), I would like to simply state why I think Gov. Palin is a brilliant political choice.

1. Instantly, any media bump the Democrats hoped to gain from Senator Barack Obama's pre-inaugural inauguration in Denver was instantly flattened. The Agent Of Change quickly became stale news.
2. Gov. Palin instantly nullifies the "attack dog" role Senator Joe Biden might have played in the two parties' one vice presidential debate. Sen. Biden's notorious nastiness has been neutered, so to speak. There is no way he can snap his mighty and garrulous jaws at the heels of a pretty, youngish mother of five children, one of which is about to be deployed to Iraq while another has Down Syndrome.
   
3. Sen. Obama's choice of Sen. Biden was a safe and necessary pick: everyone agrees that Sen. Obama's choice lent "gray-haired gravitas" to an otherwise airy ticket. And nearly any honest soul knows that Sen. Biden is anything but "change." The only ticket that really represents "change [voters] can believe" is the McCain-Palin ticket. Sen. McCain must showcase that he is the old veteran leader who has a proven track record, while Ms. Palin is the "new face" of the Republican Party with skill and vision: she's the future, not the past. Clearly, Sen. Obama's message is that the future he envisions is rooted in the more-of-the-same moribund past, that rather ancient and tired past represented by the Congressional-lifer Joe Biden.
   
4. The Sarah Palin story is every bit as compelling as Mr. Obama's rise to fame. Maybe even more so. Her's is a Cinderella story. To women, well, this sort of thing speaks volumes. Add to the fray the fact that her story through the "glass ceiling" makes Hillary Clinton's story sound positively bland by comparison, and you've delivered a deft blow to a lot of Democratic and feminist mythology. It reminds people that for a long time now, Republicans have had powerful women serving at the highest reaches of government.
   
5. Sarah Palin instantly embodies the pro-life movement in all its intellectual honesty: she walks the talk. Her having a child with special needs drives this home particularly well. It will be hard to find fault with her on issues of family, child-rearing and domesticity.
   
6. With Gov. Palin's son heading off to Iraq, and John McCain reportedly having a family member in harm's way as well, the whole "chicken hawk" lunacy of the left asphyxiates. (Mr. Biden also has family heading into military conflict.)
   
7. The Wall Street Journal reports that Gov. Palin has been a thorn in the side to, that's right, Big Oil, in her home state. Interesting.
8. If reports are accurate that Gov. Palin rejected living in Alaska's governor's mansion; that she found other jobs for the domestic staff to which she was entitled to as governor, and that she chose to live at home, forsaking the governor's limo so she could drive herself to work, well, I can't say enough as to how good that is for Sen. McCain and the Republicans. That sort of story is legendary: it is the stuff that shatters many Democratic mythologies. Gov. Palin LIVES her ideals. She does not promise them. Unlike Barack Obama's resumé, which is one of the future, her's is one that is present, real, and tangible (as is John McCain's).
   

These eight things, at the very least, prove that Mr. McCain is in this race to win. As they might say in South Boston, his choice was "wicked shrewd." The only danger for Gov. Palin is that she comes across as a wicked shrew. I doubt she will. From what I've seen, she'd have to morph into something very different to ever earn the labels of shrew, harridan, termagant. She seems utterly likable, though time will tell.

Bottom line: McCain proves himself a brilliant strategist. He's got game, I'll give him that.

©Bill Gnade 2008/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.