Kathleen Parker: McCain Chose Palin For Her Looks

Conservative Kathleen Parker's column tearing apart Sarah Palin's qualifications netted her thousands of hate letters. But that hasn't stopped her from following up with another salvo on the Republican vice presidential nominee. This time, she posits that Palin's appearance has something to do with the hasty way she was picked.

My husband called it first. Then, a brilliant 75-year-old scholar and raconteur confessed to me over wine: "I'm sexually attracted to her. I don't care that she knows nothing."

Finally, writer Robert Draper closed the file on the Sarah Palin mystery with a devastating article in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine: "The Making (and Remaking) of McCain."

McCain didn't know her. He didn't vet her. His campaign team had barely an impression. In a bar one night, Draper asked one of McCain's senior advisers: "Leaving aside her actual experience, do you know how informed Governor Palin is about the issues of the day?"

The adviser thought a moment and replied: "No, I don't know."

...

One does not have to be a psychoanalyst to reckon that McCain was smitten. By no means am I suggesting anything untoward between McCain and his running mate. Palin is a governor, after all. She does have an executive résumé, if a thin one. And she's a natural politician who connects with people.

But there can be no denying that McCain's selection of her over others far more qualified -- and his mind-boggling lack of attention to details that matter -- suggests other factors at work. His judgment may have been clouded by . . . what?

Read the whole thing.

Rachel Weiner is an Associate Politics Editor at the Huffington Post. She can be reached here.

Comments

[PeepingTom]

DUH! McCain has a weird, creepy old-man thing for much younger women.
Leaves first wife for Cindy. Now picks Palin to stare at because Cindy's getting older.

By the way, Palin isn't hot. She is decent-looking, but by no means beautiful. A good makeup artist can make anyone look good.

[PDinCA]

Are you saying her makeup looks good? Yuck. It's creepy.

[AmericasMostGangsta]

imagine if mccain was like 20 years younger. he woulda chosen an 18-year old girl as his running mate!

[independent32955]

how do you know the old codger doesn't want to take a run at Bristol?

[AmericasMostGangsta]

pay the piper!

[sociocanuck]

That's a disturbing mental image. Mind you, if McCain were 20 years younger he'd totally not be able to use Obama's youth against him; or Obama the reverse.

[TroubleNYC]

"His judgment may have been clouded by . . . what?"

By his want to win ... at all cost! She's not that hot to begin with. Maybe because I'm not into older women? I don't know. But if you have to pay thousands in make-up and hundreds of thousands for clothing to "doll her up" she wasn't that attractive to begin with.

[Fabienne]

I imagine she appeals to those who like the aging go-go girl look.

[jobecky20]

Kathleen Parker loves writing these columns because she gets a kick out of all the hate mail she receives. It must amuse her to no end. Maybe she will endorse Obama so she can get her own security detail!

[SOLERSO68]

She has already "endorsed" obama, on the stephen colbert show, if she needed to make more of an endorsement than she already has, by savaging his campaign over and over again. No private security deatail yet. she might want to cosider hiring one tho given the average republican's proclivity for violence and acts of revenge.

[ricitizen]

You know there may be some truth to that. The intelligentsia of the Republican party are p1ssed at the neocons and the hockey moms who have infected the party. There are just too many in the party on the neocon side who didn't listen to the warning by George Washington "beware of foreign entangleme­nts." So neocons overlooked options or strategies which would protect our domestic and economic security without bankrupting us in war. The "hockey moms" which really represent the anti-intellectual, religious zealots are just too polarizing. Kathleen Parker, et. al. are all just sick of it.

[BluesDogLefty]

Am I the only male who doesn't not get the "Palin is hot" thing?

She is a grating person.

She is fake as fake gets.

[AngryCenter]

decent bod, that's about it. I think Bachmann's better looking (and even nuttier, would've been a perfect choice!)

[justfine]

I find the way she has been parading around her 14 year old daughter, dressed as she is, to be what an ignorant TV commentator said of Hillary's daughter, Chelsea who is an adult, not a child. "Pimping".

While the mother-candidate dresses completely inappropriately, she has a 14 year old child dressed similarly on the campaign trail. It is truly disgusting, especially with all the conversation about "family values". What values? The Governor was pregnant when she married. Her 17 year old daughter is pregnant, unmarried and not planning to marry until many months after the birth of the child. The "fiancee", an 18 year old, unemployed, self-confessed "redneck" is a high school dropout with no plans to return to school. And, there are many, many legitimate questions surrounding the birth of the 6 month old infant who Palin claims is her child.

I find these people inexcusable.

[LouisvilleLiberal]

Just a guess....b­ut, I'd say it has something to do with librarian or school teacher fantasies.

[Truth4Voters]

Most men are not as astute as to the depth of a woman's character. They only see a visually pleasing exterior.

[Yasriel]

Makes 2 of us, pal.

[DrFrescas]

But she's a reformer..­..he he

[emily00011]

"Re-forming" her image is all she cares about. Hockey mom turned fashion model.

[littlequeenie]

Don't forget MAVERICK

[billyboil]

I can see your point - if you like your mutton dressed as lamb.
I guess you don't look at the mantle shelf when you're stoking the fire.

[DaOne]

I don't think she's hot at all.

[PoliticoJonze]

The fact that his campaign spent $150K on her clothing and $22K+ on make-up artists for her tells you that she was all about image - all style and no substance.

Remember how Faux News was up in arms about the close-up picture of her on a magazine cover - It was because they didn't make her look pretty enough.

[booksnmore4you]

Palin: chosen for her masturbatory value.

[AngryCenter]

After all, McCain is a Master (de)Bater.

[Lalama]

that's why he chose Cindy too remmeber he calling her (his soulmate)?

[Progress08]

Sugar momma f&%ktoy.