Outside of seeing this as a political choice, there is the judgment angle as it pertains to competent leadership. Obama recognized a weakness (both politically and experience wise) and made the right choice in choosing Biden who has the foreign affairs credentials. In the process Obama hurt his ‘brand’ which is change, but it was what was needed to assure competent leadership. John McCain states he is not too comfortable with economic issues but instead of choosing someone who has experience at the national level with the economy, he still made the politically expedient choice. Further more, Biden could take over tomorrow, and Palin could not. I find Obama’s judgment to be quite superior, and I am still not an Obama supporter.

McCain has become the political, poll driven candidate whose choice here gives the appearance that he is willing to risk competent leadership for the country in order to be elected.

I am disappointed and he has definitely lost a shot at my vote.

http://poliblogger.com/wp-trackback.html?p=14089

Nate Silver has suggested that the VP candidate can have a small home-state effect when he or she is from a state that is normally neglected in national politics. Palin certainly fills that bill! However, the chance that Obama would carry Alaska was always pretty low.

Really, this pick is a big YAWN.

The third name I could not think of above was the very forgettable Joe Lieberman.

I take it you’re referring to the possibility that she … acted improperly — through a complaint she filed before she was governor and through later expressions of disapproval and concern when she was briefing the head of her gubernatorial security detail — in the firing of the boss of an Alaska state trooper, Mike Wooten, who was previously married to Palin’s sister. (Wooten’s been married and divorced four times, in fact.) In response to the complaint, Wooten was found in 2024 to have shot a moose illegally and to have used his Taser on his own ten-year-old stepson, “just to show him what it would feel like to be Tasered.” …

The trooper’s boss who Palin later replaced when she became governor, Walt Monegan, had reduced Wooten’s suspension without pay from ten days to down to five. But Wooten is in fact still on the force, a time bomb continuing to tick away. Palin has denied that there is any connection between Wooten’s status and her replacement of Monegan, however, whose position was an appointed one that serves “at the pleasure” of the governor. (Monegan was offered a different position, which he refused.)

She filed a complaint against a state trooper who had been married to her sister, and who has a record of acting pretty badly. When she became governor she replaced his boss (not him) with somebody else; but his boss had a politically-appointed position that served “at the pleasure of the governor.” Sorry, that’s a non-scandal in any book.

The vice president serves as the figure-head president of the senate, and gets to vote in the event of a tie. The role of the vice president in day-to-day governance varies greatly from one administration to another. For example, Dick Cheney is deeply involved in things, compared to Al Gore during the Clinton years. In many ways, the then unelected Hillary Clinton had more influence and power (her office was nearer the president’s than Gore’s was, and she had a larger staff).

Because of the minimal “on the book” requirements of the vice president, and the president’s ability to delegate to the VP the things that they are good at, I don’t see Palin as a bad choice. She may attract some women voters who would otherwise be undecided. Sure, she’s pro-life, but there are a lot of women in America to whom abortion is not a voting issue. It is silly to categorize all women as pro-choice; there will be some tickled by the idea of a female VP who won’t care about her choice/life affiliation. Most importantly, Palin is palatable to the Republican core. The Rush Limbaughs and such will not have a problem with her.

Palin may also sway some younger voters. In an election that will largely be resolved by style and image, she is an attractive, articulate, witty person. She used to be a sportscaster. She knows how to entertain people. This is what Obama does well – he is engaging. McCain is trying to bring some of that onto his ticket by going with Palin. I would not underestimate her skill in front of the camera or microphone. She is not likely to make any serious mistakes on the air (something her democratic counterpart is known for) and will be able to capture the short attention span of young adults. Again, this is Obama’s territory. The things she is good at are things he is good at. This makes sense.

Also, I wouldn’t downplay the size/importance of Alaska. Yeah, it’s a small state in terms of population, but its importance to our economy cannot be understated. The conversation about energy independence frequently comes around to talk of drilling in Alaskan wilderness areas. She will have specific, nuts-and-bolts experiences with this stuff. In fact, that experience – dealing with oil companies, exploratory drilling, managing oil infrastructures and pipelines – will make her a powerful voice whenever there is talk about domestic drilling, be it in Alaska’s wilderness or coastal Florida. Governing Alaska lends very specific and relevant experience in this area that probably can’t be had by any other elected office. It would be a mistake to underestimate the relevance of that experience given that drilling for oil domestically is going to come up again and again, and that most americans support responsible drilling in the US. It will be VERY difficult to attack her and McCain’s positions on domestic drilling and energy independence without looking – here’s a shocker of a word – INEXPERIENCED.

I think it is still on the table for McCain to criticize Obama’s lack of experience. It would be silly for Palin to do so (except in the realm of energy policy), but she probably won’t be the one doing it. I mean, really, if you just look at it in a vacuum, what looks worse, an inexperienced president teamed with an experienced vice president, or an experienced president teamed with an inexperienced vice president? I don’t see how this is going to be a problem for McCain. His campaign will just say that the Obama ticket is backwards and the man who really matters is still inexperienced.

And I’m with a previous commenter. I think that if America had the patience for it, Biden would eat her alive. But we’re a 30-second society; in the sound-bite format that the modern debates have taken, her experience in front of cameras and microphones as an entertainer is going to give her the advantage. Biden may sound better to a minority who have the patience to listen, but next to Palin, I think most people are going to think he is a fussy old man.

Furthermore, I think it’s a bit silly to presume that there is a good chance McCain will die during the next four years just because he’s old. The guy is in better shape than most people half his age. That is going to be pounded into our heads by the time this election is done with. Personally I think there’s a decent change he’ll outlive me and I’m only in my 30′s (well, I’m kidding, but I really don’t think he’s knocking on death’s door, and I don’t think most americans will think that by November).

Also, again, by virtue of how Alaska’s government works, you never have to make any tough decisions as governor. When faced with a revenue crisis, Palin didn’t cut spending–she put a windfall profit tax on Alaskan oil companies. There are no state taxes levied against individuals in Alaska, so she didn’t have to worry about the nuances of tax policies and how they might effect economic growth–the oil companies aren’t going anywhere. Alaska’s where the oil is.

My point about her experience is that it’s almost negative experience–being in Alaskan government is so far removed from the realities of the federal government that her habits are going to be all wrong. Like in the army–the hunters are always the ones who are the hardest to train to shoot properly, because they’ve built up a lifetime of bad habits that aren’t applicable to firing guns in the military.

Obama’s run-ins with corruption are very different. There’s something fishy about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge that the Obamessiah has been trying to keep quiet. And his attempt to work with McCain on ethics reform in Congress led Obama to decide that the Democratic leadership’s proposals were 100% correct, and the only proposals necessary to clean up Washington ( http://obama.senate.gov/letter/060206-sen_obama_and_sen_mccain_exchange_letters_on_ethics_reform/ ). In the last two years, I haven’t seen those proposals have much of an effect.