There is one reason the job of vice-president exists. In a system with a
single executive, you need someone to fill in if the president is
incapacitated or dies. In war time this is especially important. More
salient: McCain just turned 72 and would be the oldest first term president
in American history with four cancer scares and the awful residue of
Vietnamese torture in his bones.
The pick is also the first presidential-level decision a candidate has to
make. You learn a lot about the candidate. And with Obama and McCain, we
have two men who have never been executives - just legislators, book-writers
and celebrities. So the decision is the first time we can compare the two
men on a presidential decision level.
In Joe Biden, Obama revealed his core temperamental conservatism. It was a
safe choice of someone deeply versed in foreign policy, and with roots that
connected to the working class white ethnics he needed. It wasn't flashy;
and was even a little underwhelming; but it was highly professional.
What we have learned about John McCain from his selection of Sarah Palin is
that he is as impulsive and reckless a decision-maker as George W. Bush. We
know this not because of what we have learned about this Pentecostalist
populist since she exploded on the scene last Friday morning (and God knows
we have learned more than we ever wanted). We know it because of how McCain
made the decision. He wanted his best friend, Joe Lieberman, the former
Democratic vice-presidential candidate for Al Gore. That pick would have
been remarkable for its bipartisan nature, would have impressed
independents, and signaled a centrist presidency centered on foreign policy.
It would have been bold while not being rash.
But McCain is in charge of a party that is now, at its core, religiously
motivated. Joe Lieberman, for all his political talents, is Jewish,
pro-choice on abortion, gay-inclusive, and domestically liberal. McCain
faced an insurrection in his party base if he picked him. Without the
evangelical base, he wasn't going to win.
So last week, McCain picked someone he had only met once before. I repeat: he
picked someone he had only met once before. His vetting chief sat Palin down
for a face-to-face interview the Wednesday before last. It's very hard to
overstate how nutty and irresponsible this is. Would any corporate chieftain
pick a number two on those grounds and not be dismissed by his board for
recklessness?
The recklessness was much more fatal in the new media world than in the old
one. In the old media world, the Republicans could try to control the flow
of information, browbeat the press and prevent the entire weird family
background and series of scandals and rumors of quite incredible events from
getting into the mainstream. But those days are over. Within minutes of the
announcement, everyone reached for Google. I recommend for starters the two
following stories that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News last March and
April. Story 1 / Story
2
WIthin hours, the McCain campaign was under siege, as the vetting process the
professionals didn't do was done by thousands of bloggers and citizen
journalists. Palin's reality show family life, her vendetta against her ex
brother-in-law, her endorsement of a mayoral candidate who ran against her
own mother-in-law, her attempt to ban books in her local library, her
friendship with one of her husband's former business partners, and on and
on: this was the first major campaign event that was covered by the
underground media before it reached the mainstream. The American mainstream
press spent a large part of last week wondering how much truth the public
could bear to hear.
McCain's entire campaign, moreover, was based on his superior experience to
Obama, who was allegedly too unknown and risky for the Oval Office, and too
jejune on foreign policy. And then McCain turned around and picked a total
unknown who had been a mayor of a town in Alaska of a few thousand and then
had only just got elected as governor of a very strange state with 700,000
people. More to the point, there is virtually no record anywhere of her
views on foreign policy in the public record.
There is one documented instance. It came in an interview with the Alaskan
Business Monthly in December 2006. She was asked about the central issue of
McCain's campaign: the surge in Iraq, which he championed. She said she
hadn't focused on the war with Iraq but had heard about the surge "on the
news." She then said that she hoped there was an "exit plan." That was it.
So on the central issue of McCain's campaign, Palin took the opposite
position to John McCain.
McCain's major domestic issue in the election, moreover, is the economy and
the rocky time many middle class Americans are having. All the polls show
that he needs to offer something tangible to counter Obama's reconstructed
Clintonomics and universal healthcare. By his own admission, he has never
been that interested in economic issues. And his vulnerability is the sense
that he doesn't get how distressed many Americans feel. So who does he pick?
A governor whose state is essentially an oil company and whose major problem
in the two mintes she has been in office has been what to do with a $5
billion oil surplus! She decided to send half a billion dollars' worth of
checks to every Alaskan this summer. And people wonder why she's popular in
her state.
It would be very hard to pick a governor in America who knows less about the
struggles of most Americans in the current economy. Alaska's economy is
currently like Russia's: booming because of commodity prices. And her one
key policy issue in Alaska has been drilling for oil in the protected
Alaskan National Wilderness Reserve - a policy McCain, against most of his
Republican colleagues, has always opposed! Oh, and she's against protecting
the polar bears as well. This is McCain's green conservatism: building
pipelines, drilling in protected wildernesses and screwing the polar bears.
There are other obvious liabilities with Palin. To say the very least, her
private life and family are colorful. The rumors about them do not stop
coming, and the tabloid press has only just arrived in what can only be
called Arkansas with penguins. Palin, moreover, currently has two ethics
investigations into her conduct in the 18 months she has been in office -
and one report is scheduled to go public days before the election. What was
McCain thinking? And Palin's edcuation? Six colleges in five years ending in
a degree in sports journalism from the University of Idaho. That's the
background of someone who could be president of the United States at any
moment after next January.
Who does John McCain think he's kidding? And what on earth was he thinking?
This was a rash, impulsive, reckless pick. We have no idea where it's headed
- and i wouldn't hazard a wild guess what we will have found out about Palin
in a week's time. Maybe it will win some votes from evangelicals. Maybe
Palin will reveal herself as something more than a former sportscaster who
can deliver a speech. But it shows a deep unseriousness about governing the
most powerful nation on earth at a time of great peril.
If you thought a president who went to war on flawed intelligence with no plan
for the aftermath was reckless, then I have news for you. You haven't seen
anything yet. Imagine the kind of decision-making McCain has just
demonstrated applied to ife-and-death decisions with respect to Iran and
Russia.
Yes, you have permission to be afraid.
Read www.andrewsullivan.com for
daily updates
Your article on McCains pick of Palin is right on I starting to feel that the only sane people left or you and me.
Ann Hendrix, Bessemer, usa
S. Jones, if you don't know what's meant by "Obama's core conservatism" (which you plainly don't), I suggest you crack a book. As for your ignorance as to the legislative records of the respective candidates, do Obama-Colburn or Obama-Luger ring a bell? I suppose not.
Rob, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Only problem is she is ineligible to run for the VP position.
In article II Section I our Constitution spells out who can hold executive positions in government and every reference is "he" or "him".
Our founding fathers would have given women the right to vote.
They did not !
J Adam, Roswell, USA
I'm sure this will come as an awful shock, but simply everbody this side of the pond is talking about leaving the USA if McCain wins. You lucky Brits will be seeing a huge influx of Yanks so you'd better root for Barack Obama.
Martha Bell, Charleston, SC, USA
I'm afraid, Andrew, that it's just you and me. All of the political sites I'm looking at--NYT, Washington Post, RealClearPolitics, Politico--are refusing to recognize McCain's choice of Palin as the dangerous travesty it is. Why is the MSM so mute about the lies and attacks? Is everyone INSANE?
Martin, Brooktondale, NY, USA
Let me also add that anyone who believes that Obama's party-line Democratic voting record equalsMcCain's 90% Bush voting record for bad judgement is, in fact, insane and deserves a McCain/Palin presidency.
Martin, Brooktondale, NY, USA
The whole campaign is becoming a circus of epic proportions. And other people (countries) are enjoying the clowns immensely. In a sense, McCain embodies a great deal of the country: too lazy (or afraid) to delve into people and policies and analyze them. It will be George Bush all over again.
Daniel F. Vojir, San Francisco, USA
Only in America ! I'm afraid, although I'm not "behind my bible clutching my weapons". Republicans made a show of "family values", claiming "private lives" were "out of bounds." This freedom is not available to mothers in..China, for example, with birth control mandated. How ironic!
richard, gilbert, usa
"The mainstream press spent a large part of last week wondering how much truth the public could bear to hear?"
So the avalanche of hysterical opinion ungrounded in fact was the MSM protecting us from the truth.
btw: You say "Arkansas with penguins?" That's only South hemisphere
Walter Funk, McMahon, Canada
Well said.
Linda , Pittsburgh, USA
I completely agree with the assertions in your column, Andrew. I enjoy your writing, as well. Please accept one small criticism. While I loved the imagery, penguins live only in the South Pole. Let's hope we are still smiling on November 5th - so help us.
Elaine Becker, Needham, MA, USA
This article is naive. Karl Rove is a "consultant" on McCain's campaign. McCain is now a puppet for whoever is running the Republican Party . Rove is the campaign "consultant" and on Fox. Rove said about Palin, " this was not a political decision, it was a campaign decision." She is a distraction.
JH Smith, Santa Barbara, USA
Ten days in, why is this the first sane article I've read about McCain's reckless pick?
Sherry, Collingswood, NJ, USA
I was a Pentecostal like Sarah Palin. That church is where I learned about the value of community service. I'm speechless that she and Guiliana found a way to shame compassion by mocking community service. I'm staggered because that makes my 5 years working with the deaf a target to be mocked.
Ray Harwick, Cathedral City, California, USA
"What was he thinking?"....He was thinking that she will help him win. And she will. It was a brilliant choice.
Moe, San Francisco, USA
Andrew,
Thank you for your column. In my mind, the media has unnecessarily focused too much attention on Palin's family, and not enough attention on how reckless the Palin pick was and how it bodes trouble for the country with respect to how McCain might make executive decisions.
NI, Bend, OR, USA
"Who does John McCain think he's kidding?" Why Andrew he's gunning for the same people that voted GW in...twice. They vote based on whether or not a candidate is like "one of them". They promote mediocrity, mock intelligence and are proud to unleash incompetent leaders on us calling them PATRIOTS.
Sean Jackson, Newark, NJ, USA
McCain's choice was reckless, indefensible, & weak. He has now been overtaken by the Right. This woman would be an absolute puppet if anything happened to him. A PUPPET. It's like the plot of a bad movie. His life would be at extreme risk from day 1, as would the entire country and world. Wake UP!
CvillePatrick, VA, USA
thank you so much. i've been waiting for someone to say this loud and clear. I've always liked McCain but this decision terrifies me!
nwe, jkl,
Governor Palin is--as her title indicates--a Governor of one of the United States, not some obscure housewife McCain snatched from nowhere. Biden also disagrees with Obama about many things--as was shown in the primaries. 100% agreement on every issue has never been the standard--so why demand it?
Paul S, Richmond, VA,
They must be putting lead in the water over here in the US. Forget Palin: the fact that about 50% of the populace want a 4 to 8 year continuation of the ruinous policies of a dim-witted President with a 28% approval rating staggers the imagination.
Tom B, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
To stick your pregnant teen and her boyfriend before all the world is tragic. This trauma for teens and they do not reach normal adult psychological growth as they get stuck..Ask any therapist..the teen divorce rate is 90%...the ramifications of this are major and it should have remained private
patty veselka, Cohoes, NY,
McCain and Palin will run the USA into the ground.
Daisy, Winston-Salem, USA
The scariest thing about Sarah Palin, apart from her complete lack of qualifications, is her right-wing religious beliefs. In Sarah Palin's world, a 12-year old girl who's raped by her stepfather and becomes pregnant, cannot get an abortion. Getting a pipeline built is God's will!
Charles Miller, Ellicott City, United States
Penguins live at the South Pole. I think you mean Arkansas with polar bears.
Adam, Montreal, Canada
The fact that the Christian right was able to force the McCain campaign into such a reckless decision should worry anybody who appreciates the global impact of the American presidency. Senator Obama may not be the right choice, but one would hope that the alternative would have had better judgment.
K. Pidcock, Wilkes-Barre, Penna, USA
Becoming a perfectly fit as VP is a far shot from being one. How long do you think it takes for even the smartest person to figure out the geo-political nuances around the globe. It is not that Sarah Palin isn't smart, it's that she has no knowledge of these things. That's what is scary.
Theresa, Chico, CA,
Andrew has been harping on this woman's pick from day 1, and he makes valid points.
However, I have no idea where he gets the info that Joe Lieberman was the alternative? On all of the prediction markets it was Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty who commanded the highest bids.
Krassen Dimitrov, Brisbane, Australia
over the last few decades the US gov't has worked on developing a more ignorant society so the true elite can milk them to the bone. this is the result. how is this different from the khomeini regime? a holy book in one hand and a gun in the other.
be afraid. be very very afraid.
Keemia, Beverly Hills, USA
The prospect of Palin as eventual president is terrifying. Her religious background seems sympathetic to the Rapture and she seems unfazed by the Jews for Jesus organization. Is she one of the people who more or less openly hope that Israel (or the US) will start World War III? Scary stuff.
BWR, Houston, USA
Judi English,
It's low-information voters like you that got this country in its current mess with Bush. For God's sake, are you really that gullible to think this woman is even remotely qualified? If McCain meant "Country First," he'd have never put our country in this dangerous position.
Kris, Valley Forge, USA
To prove a reckless choice you link to two articles about her pregnancy and delivery? You don't see the self-parody in your statement: "It's very hard to overstate how nutty and irresponsible this is "? You've managed to do precisely that. Every day for over a week. Oh, no penguins up here. lol
John, Juneau, USA
Great article because we all need to stop and consider what the choices were for these two candidates. Their very first decision in regards to their VP pick. You would think that it required research, fact-finding, and at least curiosity about the person and their life today and yesterday.
Ann, Kansas City,
"...the tabloid press has only just arrived in what can only be called Arkansas with penguins."
For accuracy's sake--there are no penguins in Alaska, save those at the Anchorage Zoo. Penguins are native to the Southern Hemisphere. Appalachia with Polar Bears, maybe?
Hb, Los Angeles, California
Trust me, Nick M., not all Americans want to live in a theocracy. Many of us are terrified of the extremist views Sarah Palin represents. I think the people who believe she is a "brilliant choice for VP" are too impressed with her teleprompter reading skills and haven't done their proper research.
Stacey W., Perkins, OK, USA
I am "shaking in my boots" because Rick Davis said she would do interviews when she was "comfortable" doing so. Huh? Why is she not comfortable now? She is 5 months and heart beat away from being the planet's most powerful person and we know almost nothing about her views on the day's major issues.
Keith, Lafayette, IN, USA
What's the difference between a hockey mom and a bit pull? oan spay a pit bull.
Bette, Town , Hick
Sarah Palin is a brilliant choice for VP. She has demonstrated her ability to lead and to bring about change in Alaska. As a true agent of change, she has the Democratic Party shaking in their boots. They will do anything to destroy her. Be strong and courageous, Sarah Palin! McCain and Palin 2008!
Judi English, San Clemente, CA, USA
In contrast to all I've read about McCain's 'shock' selection of Sarah Palin as his running-mate, this article is outstanding in placing the spotlight on McCain's increasingly questionable decision-making capabilities. Yes, it is truly scary imagining this deeply dodgy-duo at the helm after 6 Nov!
Lee, London, UK
Tom, with all due respect, that's all John McCain knows...how to fight. We in Europe are fed up to our teeth of fighting and fighting your wars. In case you didn't know, overwhelming number of Europeans want a change in administration and hence Democrats in power...except that is if you were a Geo
John, London, UK
S Jones check out one of the definitions of conservatism:
"Caution or moderation, as in behaviour or outlook"
I don’t know if Palin is up to the job. You don’t know either.
The point is McCain did not know or care.
Is that what you call putting your country first.
Ian, Stanmore, UK
Palin's daughter is lucky, her boyfriend is sticking around, I can't say that about Obama's father.
E. Hale, Seattle, USA
Excellent article, thank you. The comment by S Jones hoping that God has mercy on your soul illustrates, to me at least, how a large segment of the US population seem to want to live in a theocracy.
Oh, Tom M, finishing 894 of 899 isn't really that impressive is it?
Nick M, St Ouen, France
The plain fact is, God forbid, that this woman could become the most powerful person on the planet!!!
Reckless decision making at the very least. I would be very concerned if these two have to deal with the Russians etc.
Good article.
Darren Ward, Manchester, UK
With all due respect, John McCain hasn't been "just a legislator, book-writer, and celebrity". He's a graduate of the Naval Academy, and served a 22-year career in the United States Navy, achieving the rank of Captain. The sort of experience that used to command the respect of citizens of the U.K.
Tom M., Baltimore, Maryland, USA
I firmly support Obama's campaign but I respect McCain as a combat vet, pow, and senator unafraid to take his own views and opinions.
His choice of Sarah Palin takes this maverick attitude TOO far.
Inexperienced. Out of touch. Too rigid in her views. No wonder her daughter rebelled by pregnant.
N. McGarrah, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Remember those goose-stepping jackboots on the cobblestones of Berlin? Welcome to the new Republican party where the sea of white faces chanting "USA,USA,USA, Drill, baby, drill" and the post-rational euphoria may take my country deeper into the abyss.
My governor gives me the creeps!
Brooke Heppinstall, Palmer, USA, Alaska
I know educated people that are really inept.
I know less educated people that are really wit.
In regard to become perfectly fit as VP a gifted woman like Mrs Palin wouldn't have any problem.
In regard to become a good moose hunter,rider or basketball player you could be in big trouble.
Piero, Savona, Italy
I totally agree with you, Andrew. The president is the leader of the free world. This is a time that we need a person like Obama so we can get the world leader to cooperate help us deal with the China, Russia, Iran and N. Korea.
Dan, Portland, Oregon
Oh my God you are wrong. Obama's core conservatism? HA HA HA What planet do you come from? It's not what people say, but what they do that matters. McCain's history is one of progression and COMPROMISE. Obama has ALWAYS voted with his party ON EVERYTHING. May God have mercy on your soul!
S. Jones, Kansas City, USA