Updated: I meant creationism, not evolution. If Sarah Palin wanted to teach evolution in schools that would be a good thing.
John McCain sure does have a lot of stenographers in the press, perhaps none more enthusiastic than David Broder. Ron Fournier once got offered a job, but Broder does it for the love:
John McCain has flummoxed the leaders of his Republican Party and most of the media by picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. It's a choice no other candidate conceivably could have made -- a typical McCain gamble, unpredictable in its consequences.
[...]
By picking Palin, McCain has strengthened his reputation not as an ideologue, not as a partisan, but as a reformer -- ready to shake up Washington as his hero, Teddy Roosevelt, once did. My guess is that cleansing Washington of its poisonous partisanship, its wasteful spending and its incompetence will become McCain's major theme.
So in the name of bipartisanship he picked a hard right ideologue who doesn't believe global warming is man-made, wants to teach creationism in schools and is still building an access road to the Bridge To Nowhere after supporting it until it was clear Congress would no longer fund it. There's also nothing that says "competence" and "cutting wasteful spending" like having lobbyists run your campaign and picking a running mate who is currently under investigation. But if you're Broder, why look at any of these things critically when you can just grow the brand?
--A. Serwer
