John McCain's Shocker
When I wrote this piece yesterday analyzing McCain's VP prospects, I purposely didn't pick Sarah Palin because I didn't think in a million years that McCain would pick her. I was wrong and this is a choice that should send shivers up the Obama campaign's spine and here's what it tells us about John McCain: He's a high-stakes poker player who knows this is his last shot at the presidency and decided not to play it safe with a Romney, Pawlenty, Huckabee or any other safe, white male candidate.
My four daughters aged 2-7 may not understand or know much about Sarah Palin's views on the issues of the day, but what they do understand is that she is a woman and that there has never been a female president or vice president in American history. Even as I write, they are lined up on our sofa savoring this sisterhood moment.
This is a game-changing moment. I didn't think McCain had it in him. I was clearly wrong.
Follow Mark Joseph on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markmjm
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good thing your four -year old cant vote
Obama is known to be a poker player, not McCain. McCain's game is craps and he has a fondness for it that scares his handlers. Playing craps is wholly about blind luck, as in the phrase "crap shoot", while good poker requires significant skill. Palin is McCain's roll of the dice.
I thought he picked her because he wouldn't have to pay her as much as a male candidate. :D
No offense, Mr. Joseph, but there's a reason that the voting age is 18. It's good that your daughters recognize that a woman is in a position to theoretically make history, but for the Republicans to think that women of voting age will fall into lockstep behind McCain simply because his running mate is a woman is ludicrous.
As Mark Joseph's daughters savor this moment, I hope they will watch the Palins explain how they handle day-to-day life with their youngest child who has Down's Syndrome. What services does our potential leader and her family have available to them to help with the care of their child? Are those services considered vital by the family, or have they decided to bring extra services beyond what their health insurance providers offer? How much money are they planning on spending on a per-day basis for their child to enjoy the best quality of life possible? Are those monies out-of-pocket, or can any woman access the same level of care and support? What does the Palin family recommend to those women that live below the poverty line, but will be faced with the same decision they made? I can't wait to learn more, can you? Imagine, we have a vice-presidential candidate that can speak directly to the right to life issue, and provide the ultimate authoritative "last word" never available to the American public.
When she and her family finish laying out their personal details about how the right to life thing works for all women, she can join McCain and the oil executives, and explain the oil drilling trick. Should be quite interesting in the weeks to come.
Are you suggesting that bringing a down syndrome child to term is somehow an option that only a "priveledged" family has? Although I most likely agree with you on the issues of health care and reproductive rights, your attack on the Palin's for accepting the blessings/
It does confirm that McCain is prepared to take gambles, big gambles in this case, but it also seems to confirm that McCain recognizes he is the underdog with a bad hand to play and that he has to take such big gambles in order to have any chance in November. Whether this gamble will pay off remains to be seen, but I am skeptical. The prospect of the first woman Vice President may be savored by girls aged 2-7 (and by females of all ages, of course), but women who are old enough to vote are going to care about more than that, such as a woman's right to choose, the qualification of the person who is a heartbeat away from the presidency, and whether the woman on the ticket is a genuine choice of one of the best qualified people or a cynical tactical ploy to win votes from certain groups.
Good pick for McCain. Female running mate against a celebrity opponent. Haven't seen that in twenty four years. Should work this time though.
Your daughters' reproductive rights are part of this crap shoot, too. Remember?
A woman who doesn't believe in a woman's right to choose what happens to her body, and life is a throwback to pre 19th amendment women.
This was a gaffe by McCain. It would be like Barack Obama choosing a black VP who wanted black people to sit at the back of the bus.
Those who try to paint Ms. Palin's choice to have her child as something noble are missing the bigger picture. There are many girls who aren't strong enough, prepared enough or mature enough to handle such a monumental task as raising a mentally or physically impaired child. Making them do so when medical breakthroughs clearly could offer them choices is puritanical.
We have to become a smarter nation. We have to stop crapping out kids with the sense of outrageous entitlement to all this world's resources.
And the Dems need to make a woman's right to choose the core issue of this campaign. All those women angry that Hillary didn't get a chance to become president need to be reminded..
JOHN MCCAIN WANTS TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT DO WITH YOUR BODIES.
Yeah, why is it the PUMA's and all those women who were outraged by Barack's defeating of their candidate Hillary sit silently by and willingly let this old man tell them what to do with their bodies?
Nice call, alter ego.
I dunno. Looks like lunacy to me. But we'll see ...
Actually, both McCain and Palin are craps players, and they're rolling the dice bigtime. And your daughters' ages will, of course, not lend them to know that this isn't history unless McCain wins, since Ferraro did this already 24 years ago. Let's see what statement Hillary makes, and how she holds up against Biden in a debate.
You're kidding, right? Sarah Palin is Dan Quayle with a shriller voice! Thank you, Sen. McCain, you just delivered the Democrats a landslide win in November.
yeah, mark, you are right (obviously and appearantl
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