VP by demographics

Saturday, August 30th

4:45 pm MST - My fellow Americans, I hereby nominate Susie Blaser for the position of my vice president to the United States. Never heard of Susie? Well, she's just like you, Ms. swing voter. She owns a KFC franchise, so she has executive experience. She is one sixth hispanic, one sixth black, likes America...

And so on. I retreated, post convention, to the Aspen valley with a number of strong dems with strong views and thus immediately got to arguing about mlle Palin, a nominee chosen, it would seem, almost entirely based on demographics.

Politically speaking, it might be a smart move. My understanding is that whole chunks of voters find her likeable, attractive, and female. It's easy to say that she has no experience, comes off as a bit of a ditz, and likely can't locate South Ossetia on a map, but - political stump speeches notwithstanding - the American voters aren't all that bright. Al Gore kisses his wife in 2000 and 4% more of us think he is qualified for the presidency, or Bush comes off as folksy and we somehow equate that with ability to lead. Most Americans assume, I think, that the White House staff will pretty much run itself in times of crises. Still, it's disappointing to see someone pick a candidate for utterly political considerations. You want whoever is holding the nuclear football to at least have some vague notion of where and where not to bomb.

After a bit too much wine and speculation, I have formed my own crazy conspiracy theory: maybe she won't accept the nomination. There was, after all, two weeks of news coverage about whether or not Hilary's delegates would vote for her at the Dem convention that turned into a surprise way to show party unity. Maybe McCain and his cronies have adopted to the unspoken rule of new media: anything that is a surprise will get coverage. They run with this lady through Wednesday night and have a newer, better, more efficient also-a-woman VP nominee hiding in the wings. Olympia Snowe maybe.

Meanwhile, in search of insight, I am going to retreat to the wilds of Minnesota to observe the RNC at a safe distance.

Comments

[Bulldoglover]

It's a shame we can't all retreat somewhere...if something does happen to John McCain? If he wins? and we wind up with her running this country? We will ALL be praying for someplace to retreat!