Why Sarah Palin is a Genius Pick for McCain

Sarah Palin is a genius VP pick for John McCain. To paraphrase Denzel Washington in Training Day - politics is chess, not checkers. Friday, John McCain made a strong move. So strong was the play, that McCain got at least 80% of the news coverage on the day after the most historic political speech in US history.

Sarah Palin balances McCain and at the same time reinforces and reinvigorates his image. Trying to attack her from the view of the Obama camp presents a conundrum.

The first move the Obama camp has made is to attack Sarah Palin on experience:

Obama camp: Palin is too unknown and inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency with a 72 year-old John McCain at the helm.

McCain camp: As a three term mayor and currently the most popular governor of the largest land mass state in the nation, Sarah Palin has more leadership experience than Obama.

Experience is not a fight the Obama camp wants to wage. The Obama campaign and several surrogates have been shouting that the Palin pick nullifies McCain’s argument about experience. If camp Obama keeps this up, they lose. Saying that your #2 is just as unqualified as our #1 is just not a winning argument.

Palin helps McCain in the VP heads-up match. When Obama picked Biden, I thought this was a good choice because Biden has decades of experience and would prove an effective attack dog on the stump and in the VP debates. Sarah Palin nullifies this. VP candidate Romney, Pawlenty or Giuliani get destroyed by Biden in a debate. Unfortunately, Biden has one gear and it’s full throttle. This can go very badly in a debate. If Biden hits her too hard, he comes off as a old-school Washington bully. If he’s too soft, which is unnatural for him, he comes off as patronizing and demeaning. Biden will have to have a pitch perfect performance just to not come off as an ass. It’s hard to score political points under those conditions.

Palin helps McCain on the abortion issue. Since McCain has always been pro-life, I’ve long wondered why conservatives give him a hard time on this topic. Palin helps to inoculate McCain with the social conservatives. However, that’s not the real power of Palin vis-a-vis the abortion debate. Imagine this dialog at a VP debate.

Biden: This election is important. We have to preserve a woman’s right to choose.

Palin: Well senator, I have made a choice and my newborn son is alive because of that choice.

This is no-win for team Obama. In a normal election, you’ve got a bunch of men talking about women’s choice versus preserving life as if women are “others”, because, well, they are. Having a woman as a candidate, who has made a very real, very heart wrenching, very recent choice of this kind simply does not present an attackable surface for Obama-Biden.

On energy, Palin helps again. Palin is more pro-drilling than McCain, so this should be a soft spot.

Biden: We can’t destroy our native wilderness that must be protected for all Americans to enjoy by drilling in Anwr.

Palin: Senator, unlike Washington lobbyist talking about Anwr, I’m from Alaska. I’ve been to Anwr. I’m here to tell you, the people that live in Anwr want this drilling. The people in Alaska want this drilling. And senator, America, now more than ever, needs this drilling.

While it’s hard to really persuade people on this issue, I just don’t see team Obama gaining ground here while they risk losing a couple of points by even bringing it up.

The Obama strategy has been to paint McCain as Bush III. Well, if McCain’s own record doesn’t belie this, Palin strikes another blow.

Biden: We can’t afford more of the same.

Palin: You’re right. That’s why I fought corruption in Alaska. I took on corrupt Republicans and defeated the Republican incumbent governor in the primary. Then I defeated the Democrat, who was a former governor, in the general election. The first thing I did as governor was to kill that stupid Bridge to Nowhere which was concocted by the corrupt Republican Ted Stevens. And that’s what I’ll do in Washington. I’ll work to root out corruption endemic in ensconced, Washington insiders.

Mr. Biden, you have one minute to respond. Yikes.

On top of all of this, Palin is a “hockey mom”, a working mother, a hunter, and has a folksy accent. I can’t be the only person who thought of Fargo while she was giving her speech. Her husband is a union man who goes out to fish during the season (who didn’t think “Deadliest Catch”) and who works the oil fields in the off season.

The only weakness that has come out so far is that she abused the governor’s office to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his state job. Almost immediately it emerged that the brother-in-law is generally regarded as a jackass and is alleged to have tasered his own stepson and threatened the life of Palin’s father. Even if true, many will regard this “abuse” as justifiable.

Team Obama will have to settle on some line of attack. The choices are just not looking too appealing right now.

Technorati Tags: abortion, Election, McCain, Obama, palin, vice president