What is McCain doing? Previously, he was trying to market himself as the candidate of national security. That’s the modern Republican ticket, it seems. “Vote for me, or you will die in a Nuclear Holocaust.” Reminescent of Lyndon Johnson’s “Daisy” ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKs-bTL-pRg), except that Johnson was a Democrat. Anyways, here’s McCain, saying “Vote for me; Obama wants to meet with our enemies, God Forbid, and he’ll get us all nuked from here to Mars”, and he picks Palin as his vice-president.
Palin.
PALIN. “Joe Six-Pack” Palin. “Hockey Moms” Palin. Fox News said it right, oddly enough, when they said after Thursday’s debate that Palin did an effective job marketing herself to the American people as being folksy, as a candidate that people could relate to, by using such terms as those. To me, this seems representative of exactly why we do not want Palin to be the vice-president. Just like George W. Bush, in terms of character: I wouldn’t mind knocking back a beer with Dubya or with Palin at the pub, but I certainly would mind having either of them at the helm during a security crisis. I forget precisely which channel brought up this point, but on Thursday Night someone pointed out the National Security Crisis Scenario: let’s say the President has been killed, captured, or in some other way incapacitated or made unavailable, and the Vice-President is in the ready-room, in charge of everything. Who would you rather have with their finger on the button, Biden or Palin? I don’t even trust Palin to distinguish those lovely Russian neighbors of hers from the moose that she hunts, so I certainly wouldn’t want her in charge in a crisis. Biden, on the other hand, reeked pure confidence on Thursday.
I don’t believe that I’m saying this, but I found myself agreeing with Alex Knepper’s column; at the least, it provides something to think about. In his column in The Eagle, he argues that America’s sexism is showing through in this campaign: if Palin were male, we would not be treating her with kid gloves. It is as if most of America is saying “sure, she is weak on foreign policy, and has little experience, and knows less about McCain than Biden does, but, hey, she’s a woman, and we could use that diversity in the White House!” If America weren’t sexist, if America didn’t expect less of women, they’d have laughed her off the national stage long ago. That’s what Knepper argues, anyways, and I think he raises very interesting points. For me, I like to think that I am not like those Americans who expect less of women. Not me: I am an equal-opportunity criticizer.