Keep in mind Sarah Palin was brought to McCain's attention by Newt Gingrich, a good friend of hers, so it's not like McCain picked her out of thin air. If the press had been paying attention, she'd been on the short list for quite a while.
She was picked for four reasons. One was to shake up the campaign because he was behind by doing something unexpected. If you want to say she was picked because she's a woman, you certainly could but it's not the only reason for it.
The second reason is that she's a solid conservative. McCain's first choice was Joe Lieberman. But he was told by many that picking Lieberman would have fractured the party and would have sunk any chance he would have had to unify the party. As a solid conservative and a dynamic one, Palin certainly did that.
The third reason was that they're political soul mates. McCain has always called himself a maverick, so that's nothing new. She is a true reformer and one who's willing to tackle the hard jobs, even going against his own party. In that way, she's just like him. There's a lot to be said for compatibility.
The fourth reason is that Palin is an expert on energy policy, being steeped in it as governor of our largest energy-producing state. She was also chairwoman of the state's Oil and Gas Commission. She knows about oil backwards and forwards. With high gas prices as THE top issue in the campaign until this financial crisis came to the foreground in only the last couple of weeks, she was the logical pick to reinforce his ticket, giving it instant credibility on energy policy.
Now let's look at the other possible candidates and see if he chose the right person.
Number one was Mitt Romney. Romney excited nobody. He would have been the safe, unexciting pick, except that he has a lot of baggage. Lots of conservatives remember his Senate run against Ted Kennedy. Romney had a real chance to beat Kennedy while campaigning as a conservative. Then he blew it by morphing in the last debate into Ted Kennedy, Jr. and espousing basically whatever Kennedy was saying. Many conservatives never forgave him for that, including me. I will never vote for Mitt Romney. I dislike him that much.
Number two was Mike Huckabee. He's earned the ire of a number of southern conservatives and is highly distrusted by some. So he's out.
Number three was Tim Pawlenty. He's got reformers credentials as well but is not nearly the maverick Sarah Palin is. He's also only been in office for five years, less than George W. Bush had when he ran for president. And Bush was hit for lacking "gravitas." With all else being equal, Pawlenty is an unexciting candidate and isn't one that would excite the base.
With no chance of winning without unifying the Republican base, he really didn't have a whole lot of choices this year. Sarah Palin was probably his best choice. As a governor, she has executive experience, something none of the other three have. She has a remarkable record of achievement for someone who's been governor for such a short time. While some may think she's not qualified to be president, you still have to say she has more experience than Barack Obama, who's at the top of his ticket.
Obama had been in the Senate for 143 days when he began running for president. That's less than five months. If you counted his time actually spent in the Senate, it's probably been less than a year, counting the nearly two straight years he's been doing nothing but campaigning. Remember that Senators spend more than half the year at home doing nothing (or raising money or campaigning) while governors are on the job every day of the year with no time off. As junior Senator from Illinois, Obama's not had to make any decisions or make any hard choices while Senator, so he's completely untested. So who really is the less experienced one? The woman who's had executive experience for two years and is at the bottom of her ticket versus the man who's only effectively been a Senator for six to eight months and has no executive experience and not one bill to his name outside of naming a courthouse and is at the TOP of his ticket? Palin can tick off a number of achievements she's had while she's been governor. Obama has no significant achievements while Senator. By saying Sarah Palin has no experience and isn't ready but saying Barack Obama has experience shows that ideology trumps all. For those Obama supporters out there, doesn't it worry you that he has less experience than Sarah Palin does?
