This week the Republican National Convention will take place. Also this week, Hurricane Gustav will hit the gulf coast. It’s already a Category 4 storm; Katrina was Category 5, and New Orleans is still a big mess 3 years later.
The big news for the week was supposed to have been Senator McCain’s Vice Presidential candidate, now known to be Sarah Palin. More than one person thought of Michael Palin — except for the whole not being American thing. Gov. Palin is an interesting selection, and one that took almost everyone by surprise. Nobody is sure yet whether this is a big win or a big loss. Leading theories on the motive for this pick: she’s a woman and the pseudo-feminists who wouldn’t vote for anybody but Hillary will be impressed; there was a checklist of positions on various issues and she fit; since she’s relatively unknown, it’s hard to know anything bad about her.
But as MSNBC pointed out last night, there was actually quite an under-the-radar campaign for her. How else do you explain her spread in December’s Vogue Magazine? Her appearance on CNBC with Maria Bartiromo? Her other appearance on CNBC with Larry Kudlow (wherein she wonders what exactly the Vice President does all day!)?
And as many others have pointed out, she has problems. She has an abuse of power scandal, very little experience, a small baby to take care of on the campaign trail (one commentator wonders if she is breastfeeding), a pro-life stance as courageous as it is out-of-touch for most Americans (at least she walks the walk on this), a host of other positions most Americans don’t share, the town where she was mayor is still trying to recover financially, some experts wonder why she was chosen, others call her a “panic pick“, and to top everything off, her youngest child may very well actually be her grandchild! Some suspect she may be the grandmother twice!
She is the Governor of Alaska. Alaska has a population of roughly 670,000 people in 2006. Her entire state has a population roughly equal to the cities of Memphis TN or Austin TX. Not including suburbs. Keep in mind that 27% of the population of Alaska is under 18; the maximum number of votes she could possibly have received — lifetime, including for Miss Alaska and the PTA and Mayor — was under 500,000. Roughly 18,000,000 people voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries. That’s 36 times the number of votes Gov. Palin could possibly have received for anything, for any purpose, in any poll.
Seriously, what was Senator McCain thinking?
In the end, the nicest thing anybody outside party leadership could find to say was “At least it’s not Romney.”
In closing, an August retrospective: people still use this as a reference on Wendy Gramm; everybody go serfin’, Serfin’ USA!; duh, drinking lots of high-calorie sugary drinks could make you fat; I wish this were no longer relevant, but a Message for the College Students in your life; here’s Everything You Need to Know about Social Security Reform and Everything You Need to Know about a Federal Sales Tax.
Have a great Labor Day weekend!