Unqualified for Duty
One of the problems with modern political journalism is that when something manifestly absurd takes place, as long as there are people willing to argue both sides, our top reporters feel obliged to treat it as deserving of serious debate.
Case in point: John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Palin would be spectacularly unqualified for the job of vice president even if McCain were immortal. But the prospect of her suddenly being thrust into the leadership of the free world has got to leave everyone but the most loyal, talking-point-equipped partisans deeply chilled.
This is not a question of her politics. And it has absolutely nothing to do with her gender. It's not even strictly speaking a question of experience. Conceivably, somebody with even less experience than Palin could meet what everyone should be able to agree is a basic requirement for the office: That she or he has given serious thought to the national and international issues of our time.
Is there any evidence that Palin is anything other than an utter neophyte when it comes to issues such as Iraq, the economy, health care, and domestic and foreign policy generally?
Palin's lack of the most basic prerequisite for the job should be the dominant message of the news coverage. Instead, her selection was hailed as a "bold move," with her lack of qualifications relegated to the status of a Democratic complaint. Instead, the media establishment has let itself get drawn into a number of alternate story lines, some of them certainly quite fascinating, but none of them as essential.
What possible reason is there to nominate someone so lacking in gravitas for the vice presidency? In this case, of course, it couldn't be more obvious that Palin's selection has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with governance. Palin's gender and her hard-right credentials were clearly seen by McCain's top advisers as just what the campaign needed.
Whether that was a clever or suicidal political calculation remains to be seen. It's certainly looking more and more like it was a reckless one. But it doesn't just strain credulity -- it pulverizes it -- to suggest that she is the best and most qualified person McCain could find for the job.
It's a tremendous failure of political reporting that such patent spin from McCain supporters is being treated like a supportable position. By contrast, it seems to me that anyone suggesting that Palin was selected for anything other than political reasons should be considered presumptively a liar from this point on.
This is not a radical view. Here, for instance, is Richard Cohen on the Washington Post op-ed page yesterday:
Probably the most depressing thing about Palin is not her selection but the defense of it. It has produced a parade of GOP spokesmen intent on spiking the needle on a polygraph. Looking right into the camera, they offer statement after statement that they hope the voters will swallow but that history will forget. The sum effect on the diligent news consumer is a feeling of consummate contempt for the intelligence of the American people -- a contempt that will be justified should Palin be the factor that makes McCain a winner in November.
Even though the cable networks can find matched pairs of pundits to take opposite sides on just about anything, I can't help but think that the vast majority of political journalists recognize that there is something seriously out of whack with the Palin selection.
So it's time for our elite political reporters to look into their own heads and decide: Do you value what's in there? Or are you willing to report whatever people tell you?
This post originally appeared on the Watchdog Blog at NiemanWatchdog.org.
Follow Dan Froomkin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/whitehousewatch
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Oh come on, when she is faced with tough decisions about the national interest, I am sure she wil consult with her husband, Mr. "Alaska First - Alaska Always".
An excellent commentary. One other point: what conceivable role as VP would she be accorded by McCain and the other patriarchs in his administration? Does anyone seriously think that she would get groomed in national security matters, in the event that she had to assume the Presidency? Would anyone care what she thought on policy matters? She would be a nobody in a McCain administration, probably in charge of promoting community volunteerism or organizing abstinence conferences, or some such nonsense. McCain's trophy VP - what lunacy.
This is outstanding commentary! And I agree with all of it. It's like a poke in the eye. It's like being given the finger. It's as if they imagine we are a bunch of morons and will swallow the pablum no matter how poisonous! I'm sick of being taken for a patsy. I'm sick of being sold snake oil. Well, I never bought the snake oil. But boy am I sick of them hawking it. There are no words to express my degree of outrage and scorn for the way they are treating us. It's as if they want a dictatorship - but we should vote for it!
Stand up and be counted! Vote for Obama. No Drama. Sanity. Clear-headed decisions. Good judgment.
You don't seem to understand: Republican presidents don't need to think - they get their instructions from the "advisers" so thoughtfully provided by their superrich patrons. An everything works out just fine, except for the rest of us.
McCain exercised poor judgment by choosing the inexperienced Sarah Palin to lead the free world if he were to become incapacitated.
Agree? Join the movement:
http://www.IMPALIN.com/
Impalin' the McCain-Palin machine of distrust.
Hey, they got away with it with Dubya. So that's where they figure the bar is, these days. They are wrong and, fortunately, the public seems to have noticed this time. (But look what it took.)
Shades of Harriet Miers - just another pick out of the unqualified hat for political convenience.
While I don't totally disagree with Froomkin, the real problem is that exactly the same thing can be said about Obama. Obama was also a pick by Democrats ". . .out of the unqualified hat. . ." So, the real question is which would you rather have: an unqualified President or an unqualified Vice-President?
The difference is that Obama got many millions of votes in the primaries and got the most elected delegates, so that he obviously has already convinced a lot of people that he was qualified. Palin apparently convinced one person (or maybe two, since I've heard that Rush was pushing her), and then was picked.
The choice of Palin as John McCain"s running mate proves beyond any reasonable doubt that McCain has neither the temperament or judgement , to paraphrase Obama, to lead this country in any capacity. This decision by McCain of an individual that would be a breath away from the presidency of our nation is hasty and irresponsible to say the least. I am not surprised at this failure in judgement and not surprised at how the leadership of the Republican Party has embraced this choice due to the numerous disasterous decisions made by the Republican administration in the last seven plus years. This decision can only be described as reckless and unintelligent for a man and a political party that are competing for the highest office in our country. This should be an embarassment rather than being described as a choice by a maverick. To elect this sort of judgement to the office of the presidency would be devastating to our country to say the least.
So the country should be run by harvard-educated thinkers who have no management experience over those who have run a town and a state? Why am I surprised by this elitist thought??
Yup, yup, yup. Let's get some lawyers
back in again, anyway, at least for awhile.
yup. yup,
No, we want people to have a basic grasp of the Federal government, current events (both international and domestic), and knowledge of what the VP does. Sarah Palin actually asked her CNBC interviewer if someone could tell her what the VP does every day.
Um, president of the Senate? Second in power in case the CIC dies? Tiebreaker in the Senate? Advisor to the president?
This is a woman who seems to have not ever taken a real social science or civics class.
And while you moan about Ivy-educated elites, may I point out that George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush both went to Yale and were members of the semi-secret WASP gang known as Skull & Bones? So was Kerry. So was William Taft. The last presidents NOT to have Ivy's on their resume are Jimmy Carter (GA Southwestern State U / US Naval Academy) and Gerald Ford (U of Michigan).
So the country should be run by harvard-educated thinkers who have no management experience over those who have run a town and a state? Why am I surprised by this elitist thought??
The rest of us value leaders who CARE about the politics and other aspects of their level of governance, who KNOW the issues vital to serving in their position, who HAVE A HISTORY of doing what they say and not being corrupt and nepotistic and abusive of their priveleges.
If you think that's elitist, or has anything to do with where they were educated, then that's your problem. Don't go lying about our issues with the politicians just so you can feel justified in your own prejudicial presumptions and inane accusations of elitism being defined by wanting our politicians to have the background and judgment for doing their jobs.
Oh, yeah: try reading the article and understanding its content before spouting such irrelevancies.
It's too bad we can't put Obama and Palin head to head, too bad for Palin, lucky for Obama.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Biden/Palin meet-up, assuming she stays in.
You're right Ultra, she'd be lucky to get Obama, he was only the editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her minor in Poli-Sci would certainly give her the wherewithal to crush him like an ethics investigation in the permafrost. Instead she draws Biden, and I'd have to say, that one is going to be much tougher.
Four weeks ago, she said she didn't know what the VP did all day, on camera no less, which is something that I, a lowly artist and musician, have known since my second week of Senior Civics in High School.
She's got a son going to Iraq, and she said "I haven't really focused that much on Iraq"? As a father, to me that seems incomprehensible. Truly. If your kid was going to Iraq, how much focus would you have?
She's in trouble man. And no repetition of the list of talking points will fix that.
Senior Civics? Gee, we had that in freshman year of HS in my day, but then I'm a septuagenarian. And still say Go Obama!
A President who has not given any serious thought to the national and international issues of our time? Who's "lacking in gravitas"? "Consummate contempt for the intelligence of the American people?" How is this any different from what the Republican party has been serving up for the last eight years?
Will the same press corps that guffawed enthusiastically as GWB joked about looking under the table for
"weapons of mass destruction" suddenly (some 2,500 American deaths later) get a conscience? Let's just say I'm not holding my breath.
After all, as one of them has openly admitted, they're McCain's "base."
Is the Palin selection an example of the irrational decisions the country could expect from a McCain presidency. Palin's history clearly points to her inadequacies to be VP. With his choice for VP, McCain surely has raised some doubts about his decision making.
It is truly ironic as well as sad watching the Republicans attempt to defend the indefensible. For Months the McCain campaign has touted Experience and putting America first as the banner under which they marched. In one fell swoop McCain has revealed both to be a sham. His Vice Presidential pick was made with utter disregard for the Nation’s security or its well being at home.
Dan as you pointed out it isn’t just her lack of experience it is her total disinterest in the great issues that confront our Nation. When a candidate has to ask what the job entails perhaps you should look elsewhere.
If McCain felt obligated to choose a woman there were a number of experienced republicans he could have offered the job to. Condeleezza Rice, Elizabeth Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchison come to mind as having experience if not the interest in our National affairs. I am sure none of them would have needed to ask what the Vice President does. Perhaps none of them were interested in being used as McCain’s campaign pawn.
Ask yourself this.... If John McCain met his demise next week, would the GOP rally around Palin as their candidate for president? What if he died 3 days before the election... Would the GOP try to sell Palin as the most qualified person in the party to lead this country?
Well put.
However, I would note that the Dems might not be able to pass that test either behind Biden. Note that Biden finished wellll back behind Hillary in the primaries. And I'm a fan of both.
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