Posted by Shyam Moondra
Sen. John McCain selected Sarah Palin, the young and inexperienced governor of Alaska, as his running mate. The selection partially restored McCain's image as a maverick, but it left many of his supporters scratching their heads. McCain's decision appears to be flawed, risky, and dangerous for the nation's security. Since McCain is not making headway in national polls and he certainly can't run on President Bush's record, he desperately needed to do something to shake things up, and so he did.
Palin has very thin and unremarkable resume. She was a mayor of a small town (population 9,400) and has been the governor of Alaska for less than two years. She has zero experience in foreign affairs and security matters. She does have conservative credentials, being a staunch opponent of abortion rights and a life-time member of NRA. Palin has aggressively worked to stop wasteful spending by the state government and to expose corruption within the Republican party of Alaska. These conservative values will help McCain energize his evangical base.
It's hard to understand what motivated McCain to pick Palin as his running mate. He has been pounding on Obama for being inexperienced and not ready for the presidency. All of sudden, McCain turns around and selects a woman, who has even less experience in national and international issues than Obama. Given McCain's advanced age, it was particularly important that he selected someone who could step-in as president, should that unfortunate need arise. By selecting someone who is utterly unprepared for that eventuality, McCain has unwisely gambled on the nation's security. This gamble may in fact make McCain lose support of many male voters, who would be unwilling to vote for the ticket if they thought it was too risky for the country. The voters would think more in terms of whether Palin has what it takes to be the commander-in-chief and deal with terrorists and such adversaries as Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.
It appears that McCain was motivated to pick Palin, a woman, thinking that she might help him pick up the votes of disaffected Sen. Hillary Clinton's women supporters. The problem is that Clinton supporters are not going to vote for an unqualified Palin just because she is a woman, and certainly not for a woman who opposes abortion rights and gun laws. I suspect McCain will lose more votes because of the perception that Palin is not ready to be the commander-in-chief than gain votes because she is a woman.
McCain met Palin only once, so I doubt he really knows her well. The funny thing is that when he made the announcement, which was only a few sentences long, he had to read it from a script just to make sure that he got her name right. If McCain doesn't know Palin that well, how can he expect the American people to trust him? McCain made a snappy decision to choose Palin as his running mate. This raises a serious question about McCain's decision making process and whether he has the right temperament and sound judgment. He tends to make quick decisions without thinking through strategically. His blistering attack on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Georgia, compared with a tough but measured response from Obama which leaves room for Russia to back down, is an example of how McCain could easily get us into another conflict.
McCain took a huge risk by selecting a relatively unknown woman, who is not tested on a national level in a brutal nature of presidential politics. Because of his cowboy style temperament and his legendary short-fuse anger, McCain was risky to begin with, but now with an unqualified woman as his running-mate, the ticket is way too dangerous for the country's security.
