'What Was John McCain Thinking?'

A response to one of my Sarah Palin posts yesterday, about trying to comprehend her decision to quit, led reader "Cleo K" to comment, "WHAT WAS JOHN MCCAIN THINKING??????"

I'm presuming the writer was suggesting that McCain made a major mistake in picking the untested Alaska governor as his running mate.

Maybe yes, maybe no. What I always found more perplexing is that, according to widespread reports, McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman to be his VP but was talked out of it by his closest advisers.

 

Whatever grades you give Palin as a national candidate in 2008 — was it only last year? — there is no question that when she was named, just prior to the St. Paul convention, Republicans were jubilant. It was the first time all year that the party rank and file were excited. She electrified the delegates, gave one of the convention's better speeches, and was responsible for the ticket's move in the polls that showed the election up for grabs.

Could you imagine what the response would have been had the choice been Lieberman? A supporter of the war in Iraq, yes, but also a supporter of abortion rights? A 100 percent rating from the AFL-CIO? A no vote on Samuel Alito? Al Gore's running mate?

The outcry from the delegates would have made the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago (where Mayor Daley's "Gestapo tactics" were assailed by Abe Ribicoff), the 1964 GOP convention in San Francisco (when they booed Nelson Rockefeller for criticizing the John Birch Society), and the 1948 Democratic convention in Philadelphia (when Southerners walked out in response to Hubert Humphrey's pro-civil rights speech) look like love fests. They would have felt betrayed, and they would have been right. It would have undoubtedly resulted in a serious third-party campaign from the right.

So it could have been worse. McCain and his people calculated that they needed to shake up the race with a dramatic VP pick (similar to what Walter Mondale was thinking in 1984 in selecting Geraldine Ferraro). What they ultimately forgot is that the race is won or lost by the candidate heading the ticket.

GOP Reax. Lots of positive feedback from yesterday's post that quoted the Republican "movers and shakers" on what to make of the Palin decision. One more arrived today, from New Hampshire GOP powerhouse Tom Rath:

If it's a precursor to a 2012 run it is unorthodox to say the least. I am inclined to accept her at her word — that the price she was paying to remain in office was wearing down her family. She has shown a remarkable ability to connect with certain sections of the Party and that does not seem to be directly related to her holding office, so I doubt her being no longer in office will impact on that connection. Her ability to communicate, which is pretty good, will be severely tested without the spotlight that the governorship would give her. Still. we live in a time in which the old ways of doing things don't seem to mean much so who really knows? As Alice observes —"curiouser and curiouser."