John McCain Chooses Sarah Palin as his Running Mate

 Today John McCain chose first term governor of Alaska Sarah Palin as his running mate. Much like Barack Obama, John McCain had a glaring weakness that he needed to address, but unlike Obama I am not sure he did it. Barack Obama’s biggest weakness was his lack of experience and foreign policy. Joe Biden, although he comes with a mouth that may get him in trouble, addressed both of these weaknesses. 

 John McCain’s weakness, if weakness is even the right word, is that he has alienated conservatives over the last eight years and now he needs to win them back. Sarah Palin appears to have solid conservative credentials but she has also earned the “maverick” title by opposing fellow Republicans.

Politics isn’t just a game of competing interests and clashing parties,” added the Palin, 44, who has built her career in large measure by challenging fellow Republicans.

 So she appears to be in the same mold as McCain, although I would say that she is probably much more conservative than McCain. During her speech she talked about how she has appointed Democrats and Independents to positions in her state government. I am not sure picking a little known conservative with a penchant for challenging other Republicans and acquiescing to Democrats will help McCain gain the confidence of the conservatives that he desperately needs, but overall reaction on talk radio is very positive.

 It is obvious to me that this is an attempt by McCain at gaining the support of the Hillary Clinton supporters who are still bitter about Obama not choosing her as his running mate. But at what cost will it come? John McCain has been telling America that Barack Obama doesn’t have the experience to be president, and he is right. But how can he now use that against Barack Obama when his running mate is in the first term of her governorship? Perhaps he feels that Barack Obama can’t attack her lack of experience for fear that it could backfire on him with a counter attack on Obama’s lack of experience. It didn’t take long for the Obama campaign to fire back at Palin’s lack of experience, trying to neutralize that line of attack from McCain.

 The Barack Obama campaign has also begun to attack her lack of foreign policy experience but I am not sure that angle would work because McCain didn’t need a running mate with that type of experience, he has it.

 Just as Barack Obama had to choose a running mate with more experience and older than he, John McCain had to pick a running mate that might negate the “old man” image, he had to “get younger” and he definitely accomplished that.

 I still don’t know enough about her to give an opinion on how good or bad this pick is, although I have to say that from what I have seen so far I like her. I don’t know if this choice will sway me to vote for McCain yet, and I wonder how many conservatives this pick will bring to McCain. He seems to have ridden a fine line with this pick, trying to pander to Hillary voters and conservatives at the same time. It may pay off for him.

 The questions in my mind with this pick is, will her lack of experience negate her conservative credentials with the undecided voters? And, will the fact that she has opposed Republicans in the past hurt her with the voters?

 I have had mixed feelings about this pick, as I wrote before, I don’t know enough about her yet, but I am sure we will get to know her in the next few months.