A Good Speech With No Substance

Sorry I haven't written anything this week. It has been a crazy and busy week. Frankly I try to stay away from too much politics on here, unless it relates to "race" and culture. But I can't resist with all this new swirling around on Sarah Palin, who the media seems to be gushing over for being able to read a good speech last night.

John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, to be his running mate has to be one of the most cynical selections I have ever seen.

It is painfully clear that the entire reasoning behind the selection is to court all the disaffected Hillary supporters still running around out there. But come on. McCain wants that group so badly that he may well have completely blown up the logic and premise of his whole campaign. While I have no doubt he will succeed in getting many of the Hillary nutcases who still don't know what to do with themselves, does he really think women in general are so shallow that they would support ANY woman he picked?

I'm not even a woman and I'm insulted. This woman's resume is even shorter than Obama's, one of McCain's major criticisms of the Senator, and she has absolutely zero foriegn policy experience, another issue McCain has tried to hammer Obama on. And yet, we are supposed to believe he really thinks she is qualified to be President of the United States, since a VP has to satisfy that criteria as well. This is even more so considering McCain will be the oldest President to ever be sworn in should he pull off a miracle. I think the idea of the Republicans selecting a woman is great, because it does grab headlines and it does make their campaign also a symbolic one. But is this all the Republicans have? You really do have to wonder how the decision was made for example to pass over Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas if a woman was what you wanted. Or Condeleeza Rice? Was it just to get a young woman to counter Obama's youthful appeal?

It won't work.

I trust that women and young people are not the shallow thinkers McCain seems to think they are. I also think what this says about McCain is that he does not have the confidence to pick a strong woman, or man, someone who can stand up to him in terms of what they bring to the table, meaning someone who has equal or stronger credentials than he. No, unlike Obama who chose a VP who is clearly his equal and someone who has the experience to challenge his decisions, a trait that demonstrates Obama's leadership style, confidence and courage, McCain went with someone who in no way can call on a real resume of experience to challenge him.

There are also those who say McCain's choice, a monumental flip flop on his stance that the Presidency requires years of experience and foreign policy credentials, is no more of a contradiction than the change candidate, Obama, picking a Washington insider to be his running mate.

Wrong.

Change is not threatened by working with insiders. On the contrary, much of the change that has occurred historically has come from people working from outside with those working on the inside. So there is no contradiciton in the Biden selection. Just Obama's recognition that he will need someone on the inside to help smooth the way for the change he seeks.

There is absolutely no credible way to soft peddle the contradiction in a campaign that belittles its oponent for not being ready to lead and for not being able to handle foreign policy in a dangerous world, which are the main cornerstones of the McCain campaign, and then picking a back up that has far less experience than your opponent. The Republican's might as well throw that argument out the window.

No, this is a calculated risk based on a misguided belief that women will take any woman he throws out there. And sadly, I doubt McCain even realizes the insult. Palin may be a good person in general. But come on, most of her constituents are deer and moose. She is not the second coming of, or a substitute for, Hillary Clinton. I have seen Hillary Clinton. Palin is not her. Good try McCain. But you continue to misunderstand what this election is about.