McCain's Indiscretion

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin isn't a mistake. It's a disaster. Like a moonstruck teenager, McCain was smitten overnight with Palin. But as the revelations keep pouring out about Palin, McCain is surely starting to realize that he has hitched himself to a volatile partner who threatens to upend his entire campaign.

Already media coverage is focused almost exclusively on the Palin drama rather than on McCain. Palin has the upper hand in the relationship with McCain. Her convention speech on Wednesday will likely upstage McCain's. The GOP hasn't experienced this big a mess since 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower mulled over dumping a young Richard M. Nixon. But were McCain to dump her overboard, the religious right would, in effect, accuse him of jilting her -- of political infidelity. In short, McCain is hostage to Palin, and she will begin to savor it. "To tie a prominent statesman to her train and to lead him about like a tame bear," wrote Henry Adams in Democracy, his nineteenth century Washington novel, "is for a young and vivacious woman a more certain amusement than to tie herself to him and to be dragged about like an Indian squaw."

McCain should have seen this coming, but as the New York Times reports today, his campaign apparently failed to examine Palin's record adequately. The choice of vice president was the first test of McCain's judgment. Barack Obama passed it with flying colors. McCain flunked it. If he can't pick a vice-president, how on earth is he going to run an entire government?

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin

Comments

[Insearchoftruth]

McCain has already allowed the neocons to tether him. He is a willing and accommodating puppet. For that reason, I doubt if they will let Palin act as the puppet master. If anything she will agree to be tethered as well. You see there are three forces at work: one seeks to hold on to power, another accepts merely the appearance of power; and, the third wants to sieze power. McCain skipped his military strategy and tactics classes so he became convinced the neocons had the answers. When he saw the opponent assemble an army, he panicked, reached for the red phone and called Gov Palin for advice. We are now waiting to see what she says. When she does speak, we will judge whether she saved McCain, promoted herself, or buried them both.

[YoMama]

But the speech she recites will have been written entirely by handlers. The debate will provide better grounds for judgment.

[Otaku1031]

Agreed on the outcome of the VP debate. Biden shouldn't pull any punches with Palin. Hit her on the issues, her knowledge of foreign and domestic affairs (and not just as they relate to Alaska), the role of the VP in Congressional procedures. Expose her for the underqualified candidate that she is. Leave her personal life out of the picture, except where it is relevant to her ability to govern under the Constitution. Her personal life, after all, is what she'll have to return to after Nov. 4th.