McCain backers have said McCain chose Sarah Palin because she's so much like him. Most important, she seems to have taken on the Republican establishment. But in other ways she represents everything he hates. A few weeks ago, former senator Rick Santorum said that when they served in the Senate together McCain "would often rail against Christian conservatives." When I saw former Majority Leader Tom Delay, a strong religious conservative, he said something similar: "Issues that are important to me are not important to him."
And of course he famously referred to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance." It's worth recalling his words from 2000:
"Political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value.The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country. Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right." In a way, it misses the point to say John McCain is uncomfortable talking about his faith; what he's been uncomfortable with was evangelical Christians.And then McCain went and picked a movement evangelical. Sarah Palin was a far more serious evangelical Christian than George W. Bush; she's the first major candidate who comes fully from the religious conservative movement.
Perhaps McCain had just become more comfortable with religious conservatives over the years, or made what he viewed as a Faustian bargain in order to win. Perhaps Santorum, who left the Senate in 2006, was out of date. Perhaps he felt that she had the piety without the judgment of Falwell and Robertson.
Or perhaps he just didn't know much about this aspect of her. I have no doubt that political advisors told him how popular she'd be with the pro-life community and that he loved the political implications of that. But did he knew that she justified a natural gas pipeline as part of God's will? Or that she supports the teaching of creationism? Or that she supported a Christian Heritage Week? I'm not saying these views disqualify Palin; I'm saying that until recently they would have led McCain to disqualify Palin.
Of course, even if he's just learning about these things now, he's not likely to be too bothered, since it's clearly part of her appeal. Of all the strange turns of events in the campaign, the idea that McCain would become a hero of the Religious Right is one of the weirdest.
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I belive McCain knew what kind of person he was getting in Palin. Look at the facts, she alone has fired up the GOP and energized the campaign right when it needed a boost. Obama choose an old idea...Biden. How many times has Biden run for president? Each time the voters said NO. You think they are going to vote for him...when he is one heart beat away from being President? The answer is NO.
Palin is new, a fresh face on the political scene, and someone who represents a change. Obama says he is change, but he has been part of the problem for 4 years in the Senate. He has proposed no major legislation or sponsored any bill to fix the problems that he claims he will now fix.
He will fix all the problems with a Congress that has a rating lower than the President? A do nothing Congress? A Congress that can only agree on time off...weeks at a time.
Time for a change...more Democrats in Congress only makes it worse.
Finally, the once independent McCain disappeared when he knelt before the extreme fundamentalist majority of the Republican Party and accepted their candidate for Vice President. "Country First" was NOT a consideration in McCain's selection of Sarah Palin, an extreme, fundamentalist conservative as his running mate. I am typing and listening to a Sunday talk show promo where John McCain promises that his cabinet would be bipartisan and composed of the nation's best and brightest. WOW! I wonder if he even believes it? In this campaign, the elderly McCain worshiped before the once despised altars of the religious right. In this campaign, old John bowed before the extreme conservative fringe of society represented by the talk show mafia. In this campaign, John McCain betrayed everything that identified him as unique. This elderly war hero served his country well but his time should be past. John McCain is no longer fit to lead.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hal-donahue/mccain-makes-age-an-issue_b_118194.html
I do not get the sense that McCain fully understood Palin, but had a reasonable grasp of what we was getting into. Several writers who know him far better than arm-chair me have pointed out that McCain is most defined by his short-term pragmatism.
So he chose Palin to get a unified convention and a motivated base.
I think he will find governing to be very difficult if he wins. The faithful troops who are swooning for Palin will be expecting her to weild power in the administration. If she does, they will hit the wall of the Democratic Congress and a moderate general poulation.
If the administration does manage to have the policy outlook of McCain as we have come to understand him up to now, the Christian right will be very unhappy. Either way, watch for lots of leaks, underminig, carping, etc.
McCain did not have control of the platform committee and it appears that he made some sort of 'deal' to accept Palin to achieve his short-term electoral goals. He's been called cynical for that. Perhaps he is. But he is also taking a big risk in that 'his' voters are really Palin foters (if the energy that is out there is reflective of Republican reality).
Good luck to him. And God's grace on the rest of us. Could be an ugly or very wierd 4 years.
Having someone like Palin running for the position of "just a heartbeat away" from the presidency should scare the "HELL" out of all Americans
.. and the world as a whole!
Lets see:
• Believing in UFO's is considered weird
• Believing in Santa Claus is for children
• Believing in Bigfoot is unsupported
• Believing in fairy tales is chilish
• Believing in the Easter Bunny is delusional
• Etc.
... and now we're suppose to support a woman (Palin) who
is running for the high office of vice-president, and believes that "the rapture"will come and people will just be "lifted" into space?
Palin would only be a step away from the position of president,
if something should happen to McCain ... or forbid ... the Neo-cons should take a drastic step to end a McCain presidency (JFK style)!
Are Americans now becoming so delusional with themselves, that
they have lost all sense of reality in this election?
Voting for the McCain/Palin (or Palin/McCain) ticket is
a huge step backwards for America (and the world)... and one that
will surely signal the end of our U.S. democratic CONSTITUTIONAL government!
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