I have a very high threshold for cynicism in politics. A politician has to go pretty far to appall me with his cynicism. But what a cynical choice John McCain just made!
McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a triumph of Republican identity politics. Palin is, quite obviously, a two-fer: a women, and a candidate with not only working-class roots but a working-class husband (a member of the Steelworkers, no less). That doesn’t mean she champions the cause of workers and women, however. She’s part of a ticket that wants to extend the Bush tax cuts to the rich and opposes the Obama tax cuts to the middle class. And if Palin issued a condemnation of the Supreme Court decision in the Ledbetter case, which denied women the right to sue for back pay denied them as a result of gender bias, I sure didn’t hear it.
Barack Obama made clear in his acceptance speech last night, and in his selection of Joe Biden as his running mate, that he sees the election as a battle for the white working class. Clearly, McCain does as well. A McCain-Romney ticket would have given the Democrats an irresistible target -- two candidates, 12 homes. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty would have brought working-class roots to the GOP ticket as well, but Palin has assets he lacks: her gender, and her identification with the cause of drill-till-we-drop.
If McCain were in his 50s, or even his 60s, or weren't a cancer survivor, Palin would be a more understandable pick. But given his age and his medical history, picking the single least qualified candidate in the modern history of the presidency and vice-presidency is simply a dangerous decision for the nation, and Palin did nothing in her coming-out statement to disspell that impression. We can only assume that McCain dismissed this concern in his need to shake up the race, and that he hopes that women and working class voters will like Palin for her demographics and overlook her actual beliefs. The rank cynicism of this choice is overwhelming.
—Harold Meyerson
