Palin' in comparison

In the short hours since John McCain selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate, the decision has been hailed by pundits and bloggers alike as anything from baffling to brilliant. Or so I'm guessing, because I've been in class, pondering the logic behind this decision instead of the novels of Eliza Haywood or the finer points of ballad stanza.

The choice of Governor Palin for Vice President is somewhat unconventional for a number of reasons - she's young, female, and a political greenhorn to such an extent that makes Senator Obama look like Senator Byrd. At first this might appear to be a case of simply balancing the ticket - Governor Palin shares several characteristics with Senator Obama (female, not African-American, of course - but demographically underrepresented) where Senator McCain could be likened to Senator Biden in experience and age. Each party is putting a different foot forward.

The more troubling idea is that the selection of Governor Palin is to court Senator Clinton supporters disenchanted with the Democratic Party after the nomination of Senator Obama. One might not expect such a gesture to cause voters to switch parties until one considers the recent poll that put 21% of Clinton supporters voting for McCain in November, with another 27% undecided. Should the selection of Governor Palin serve to increase those numbers further, the lack of a united base could be the Democrats' undoing in a year when they should be absolute shoe-ins. If this is the GOP's motive, it stands as an insulting and dangerous move, even by their standards. Trying to lure in Hillary's supporters with a commercial was shady enough - making an actual campaign decision over it is offensive to the popular Alaska governor, who's now more or less bait at the end of the Republicans' rod.

And I'm really not one to extensively consider John McCain ill-health scenarios, but this one would be especially grim. I do not consider a lack of experience in Washington a distinctly bad thing; indeed, candidates who distinguish themselves from the corrupt rank-and-file of Washington are decidedly appealing. But a candidate needs at least a modicum of familiarity with national politics. Governor Palin has held her position for about a year and a half after serving as mayor of a city smaller than the audiences to whom she'll speak. Should McCain run into a health issue, this woman will be sitting across the table from Ahmadinejad. (Okay, just kidding, we probably would have bombed them by then.) And the Republicans say Obama's inexperienced?

On the other hand, this is all a huge gamble for the GOP. They're essentially betting that the amount of Clinton voters garnered by Governor Palin will be substantially greater than the amount of far-right misogynists who might jump ship (and who, I might add, already aren't too keen about a McCain presidency). And besides, any Clinton hold-out who doesn't support Obama now is likely not smart enough to realize that a soccer mom-looking candidate could rule the free world, or even perhaps that the office of vice president exists at all.

Biden's going to have to handle his debates gracefully as well, because I don't even want to think about the media narrative if it gets ugly. "VETERAN WASHINGTON INSIDER VERBALLY ABUSES BRIGHT-EYED AND BUSHY-TAILED MOTHER OF FIVE."