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The Veepstakes
By John W. Kennedy | September 3, 2008
It used to be that vice presidential picks didn’t matter much, important only to balance a ticket geographically such as Texan Lyndon Johnson did for New Englander John F. Kennedy.
But with no incumbent president or vice president in the contest, this is no ordinary election year. Both nominees seem to have picked running mates designed to compensate for perceived weaknesses repeatedly criticized by the other party.
In Joe Biden, the young, inexperienced Barack Obama found a veteran senator with foreign policy experience that he lacks. He also may have gained Catholic voters, although Biden is so liberal many Catholics reject his politics. Obama also is trying to counter an image as an aloof celebrity, so choosing a vice president who hails from a working class city and still rides the train to and from work every day is a smart move. Biden doesn’t help Obama appeal to the evangelicals he had been trying to reach.
As a way of deflecting criticism, John McCain may have gone one better in selecting Sarah Palin. Countering an impression that he is an out-of-touch codger stuck in the 20th century, the 72-year-old nominee made the edgy choice of a 44-year-old mother of five, the first woman ever on a GOP presidential ticket. He also shored up support among evangelicals who questioned his commitment to conservative social values. A pair of polls suggests that McCain’s decision is widely viewed favorably.
And the fact that McCain boldly picked a woman—while Obama rejected Hillary Clinton as a running mate—could siphon off some needed votes from females. Palin is scheduled to speak at the GOP convention tonight.
McCain is the first nominee to make a surprise choice since George H.W. Bush tabbed the obscure 41-year-old Dan Quayle in 1992. The danger in picking a young unknown vice president—as Palin has quickly discovered—is that reporters are now eager to dig up virtually anything about her past.
The choices by Obama and McCain will detract a bit from the candidates’ main message. Obama really can’t talk about “change” so much when he picks someone who has been in the U.S. Senate for 35 years. And McCain seems off base questioning Obama’s readiness for office when his own running mate was a small-town mayor only two years ago.
In any regard, this year’s vice presidential choices likely will be influential in helping the huge number of undecided voters make up their minds one way or the other. And the United States will have an executive team that will have either a black man or a white woman for the first time in history.
Topics: Politics |
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 am
I don’t feel reassured by McCains “judgment” in picking Sarah Palin as a VP. Neither do I feel that she has shown “good judgment” regarding her confused family priorities. I don’t understand the strategy of McCains advisers or the GOP as a whole in this election. I’ll be watching tonight,and listening for her to tell me why that even though she can’t seem to run her own life, I should trust her to help run mine.