Last week I wrote an article guessing the reasons the McCain campaign selected a woman, and specifically Sarah Palin, as the vice presidential nominee. I suggested Obama’s lead as a result of the Democratic Convention had opened up significantly. As it turned out the tracking polls showed they were up 8% before Obama’s speech. You can be sure that Obama’s speech added another 3 to 6 points to the deficit McCain was facing. The polling data showed that by adding Romney, Ridge, or Pawlenty to the ticket did little to close the gap.
It became clear that McCain had to have a woman on the ticket. The first name that would spring to most people’s minds was Condoleezza Rice. She has done a good job as Secretary of State and she is African-American. Her problems, not her own fault, are that she has been part of the Bush Administration for some time and her expertise is in international affairs. The Bush presidency has been an anchor around McCain’s campaign and her presence on the ticket would allow the Democrats to continue to argue that McCain’s presidency would be just a continuation of the eight previous Bush years. Furthermore, McCain is not as strong on economic matters as he is on international matters, meaning that someone with business or executive experience could be better.
Another potential woman running mate could have been Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican senator from Texas, who has served since 1993. She was born in 1943 and has a legal background. She has been on the Appropriations Committee, the Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation, and the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. The fact that she is a senator, has no executive experience, and her age were factors in her not getting the nod.
A third person who was considered was Carly Fiorina, past president of Hewlett Packard. She had that job for approximately four years when she was forced out. She has been working with McCain for some time, and is incredibly articulate on the economic issues. She has had no political experience and possibly because of her problems with running Hewlett Packard they decided not to go with her. Other women were reviewed, such as Senator Elizabeth Dole, who has served since 2003 and was born in 1936. The fact is there were not a lot of possible selections and Governor Palin was an easy choice.
Despite the great speech by Palin on Wednesday at the convention, I think the jury is out on his pick. However, the McCain campaign did accomplish several things. The first is they stopped the momentum of the Obama campaign and took focus away from Obama’s acceptance speech. Secondly, they have occupied the headlines since last Friday morning and more important have occupied many discussions in homes around this country.
There has been recent criticism over the fact that when Governor Palin made her first speech on Friday, August 29th, she did not mention that her 17 year-old daughter was pregnant, nor did Senator McCain. This was not much of a secret in Alaska and was not something that was being hidden. That was not the time or place for it. I am sure that Senator McCain and Governor Palin hoped that the fact that her daughter was pregnant would not become a national feeding frenzy. They of course were wrong. Unfortunately the Governor’s daughter is not the first teenager in our nation to become pregnant. The family has rallied behind her, she is going to get married and life will go on. One of the reasons it is difficult to get people to run for office is the fact that nothing is sacred anymore and no matter what your age you are vulnerable to vicious attacks. I give credit to Senator Obama who said he thought this was out of line, that his mother became pregnant at 18 years-old and his father did not hang around a long time. The McCain campaign knew of the pregnancy issue before picking Palin and felt on balance that it was not a show stopper. There are many families and single parents in America who can identify with the issues that the Palin family is facing. People in this country are just starting to know her and her family.
Her speech at the convention was a show stopper. It was down to earth, direct and with humor. In her debate with Joe Biden, who is probably the best debater Democrat or Republican in the Congress, she faces an uphill fight. This will be another critical test for her. In any event McCain did not have a choice, if he didn’t do something different the campaign was over. At the moment what McCain hoped for has worked.
Remember, a day in politics is a lifetime.
