You can say this much, at least. She sure won't be another Dick Cheney.The choices were all bad. Tim Pawlenty was a lightweight. Joe Lieberman was a liberal. Mitt Romney was a Mormon. Over the past few weeks, it became clear that John McCain couldn't pick anybody for vice-president. And so he didn't. Instead, he picked Sarah Palin.There's nothing wrong with Sarah Palin. Indeed, she's a perfectly normal politician. A hardline conservative with a good government streak who's proven a skillful political comer in a tiny, remote state. It's just a bit...odd. McCain speaks often of the transcendent challenges we face. His whole campaign is based on the idea that we need steady, experienced leadership to guide us through a world populated with lethal foreign threats. McCain has amassed that experienced the hard way: He's a 72-year-old man who's served in Congress for almost three decades and spent five years languishing in a prison camp. The simple reality of his campaign is that, for reasons of message and age, his vice-presidential pick matters more than most. If the world really is as he describes it, then experienced leadership is enduringly crucial. And it is not unimaginable that there could come a time in his presidency when his understudy must sorrowfully step forward.Her record is admirable, but from the standpoint of actual achievements in governance, singularly undistinguished. Sarah Palin has held a serious political office for less than two years. Her resume looks like this: She was mayor of a hamlet with 9,000 people. She parlayed that into a spot on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she courageously played whistleblower against entrenched corruption. And she used that reputation to mount a good government campaign for the governorship in 2006. For the past year-and-a-half or so, she has been governor of a state with a shade over 600,000 people -- which is to say, the size of Columbus, Ohio. Is Michael B. Coleman ready to be president?She has no foreign policy experience. She has no experience making national policy. She has spent fewer than 700 days crafting statewide policy for Alaska. None of this is a moral flaw or personal failing. It just makes it hard to imagine her fit for the vice presidency.This was, for McCain, a major decision. And we can learn from it. And here's what even his supporters must admit: Country did not come first. Polls did. The calculations are fully transparent. Understanding that he needed to broaden his electoral coalition, he picked a woman. Understanding he needed youth, he picked a young politician. Understanding he needed to emphasize his reformist credentials, he picked a onetime whistleblower. What he didn't pick was anyone able to help him govern, or capable of stepping forward in a moment of crisis. Palin is not an experienced foreign policy hand like Lieberman or a successful and experienced governor like Tommy Thompson. Today, McCain chose his campaign over his presidency. Over our presidency. Palin seems like a promising young politician, but McCain increasingly seems like a desperate one.Image used under a Creative Commons license from Badish. SARAH PALIN.
You can say this much, at least. She sure won't be another Dick Cheney.The choices were all bad. Tim Pawlenty was a lightweight. Joe Lieberman was a liberal. Mitt Romney was a Mormon. Over the past few weeks, it became clear that John McCain couldn't pick anybody for vice-president. And so he didn't. Instead, he picked Sarah Palin.There's nothing wrong with Sarah Palin. Indeed, she's a perfectly normal politician. A hardline conservative with a good government streak who's proven a skillful political comer in a tiny, remote state. It's just a bit...odd. McCain speaks often of the transcendent challenges we face. His whole campaign is based on the idea that we need steady, experienced leadership to guide us through a world populated with lethal foreign threats. McCain has amassed that experienced the hard way: He's a 72-year-old man who's served in Congress for almost three decades and spent five years languishing in a prison camp. The simple reality of his campaign is that, for reasons of message and age, his vice-presidential pick matters more than most. If the world really is as he describes it, then experienced leadership is enduringly crucial. And it is not unimaginable that there could come a time in his presidency when his understudy must sorrowfully step forward.Her record is admirable, but from the standpoint of actual achievements in governance, singularly undistinguished. Sarah Palin has held a serious political office for less than two years. Her resume looks like this: She was mayor of a hamlet with 9,000 people. She parlayed that into a spot on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she courageously played whistleblower against entrenched corruption. And she used that reputation to mount a good government campaign for the governorship in 2006. For the past year-and-a-half or so, she has been governor of a state with a shade over 600,000 people -- which is to say, the size of Columbus, Ohio. Is Michael B. Coleman ready to be president?She has no foreign policy experience. She has no experience making national policy. She has spent fewer than 700 days crafting statewide policy for Alaska. None of this is a moral flaw or personal failing. It just makes it hard to imagine her fit for the vice presidency.This was, for McCain, a major decision. And we can learn from it. And here's what even his supporters must admit: Country did not come first. Polls did. The calculations are fully transparent. Understanding that he needed to broaden his electoral coalition, he picked a woman. Understanding he needed youth, he picked a young politician. Understanding he needed to emphasize his reformist credentials, he picked a onetime whistleblower. What he didn't pick was anyone able to help him govern, or capable of stepping forward in a moment of crisis. Palin is not an experienced foreign policy hand like Lieberman or a successful and experienced governor like Tommy Thompson. Today, McCain chose his campaign over his presidency. Over our presidency. Palin seems like a promising young politician, but McCain increasingly seems like a desperate one.Image used under a Creative Commons license from Badish. 
