Out-of-the-box or out of his mind?

It’s hard to work out US Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s motivation for choosing Sarah Palin to run as his Vice President. Like many, I’ve been puzzled.
In case you’ve missed it, here are some notable things about Sarah Palin

• She has been the governer of Alaska for less than two years.
• She’s 44 and a mother of 5.
• Her eldest son is called Track and her youngest son is called Trig (maybe it’s an Alaskan name thing? Although her girls have regularish names…Bristol, Willow and Piper)
• She is a member of the National Rifle Association and an anti-abortion advocate.
• She only got a passport for the first time two months ago. Before then, she’d never been out of the USA.
• Track enlisted in the US army last year. Trig was born only 4 months ago and has down syndrome.
• Her 17 year old daughter, Bristol, is 5 months pregnant.
• She advocates that creationism (the story of Adam and Eve) be taught in schools instead of evolution.
• And that abstinence be taught instead of sex education.

Action-packed, huh?

[ read her wiki entry here for more info….]

No-one saw this one coming. Not even Sarah Palin who had only met John McCain once before he invited her to a meeting on his porch where he offered her the vice presidential ticket.

Some people think that he chose a young, attractive woman to sweep up disaffected and dissapointed Hilary supporters. I find this hard to believe. Does anyone seriously think that these women (who are left-leaning if they were supporting Hilary) would suddenly go “Oh wait, I know Sarah Palin is anti-abortion and pro-guns and very right wing but she’s got a vagina just like Hilary so she’s got my vote!”
I don’t think so.

Any way you look at it, choosing someone as inexperienced and controversial as Palin is a huge risk. Interesting and brave but risky. Putting the controversial bit aside for a moment, the Democrats have a pretty compelling argument when they point out that this political novice would be “one heartbeat away from being president” if the 72-year-old cancer survivor McCain were to become president.

He dies or becomes incapacitated? She’s the leader of the free world. That scares me. Even more than John McCain and another Republican term.

As for the rest of the storm brewing around her – rumours that her daughter Bristol was actually Trig’s mother and that Palin was covering for her were sweeping the internet in the past week which forced Palin to come out and admit her daughter Bristol COULDN’T be Trig’s mother because Bristol was herself 5 months pregnant.

The right wing religous and anti-abortion groups have come out and praised both Palin and her daughter’s decisions to keep their babies. Although it certainly makes a mockery of Palin’s  policy of teaching abstinence in schools instead of sex education.

One more thing. It’s interesting that when Jamie Lynn Spears – the same age as Palin’s daughter, 17 – announced she was pregnant, her mother Lynne was widely derided as being a bad mother for somehow ‘letting’ her daughter fall pregnant.
But the reaction to Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy has been praise. Palin has been quick to announce that Bristol will be marrying the father – her 18 year old high school boyfriend. Both Palin and her daughter have become instant poster girls for the anti-abortion movement.

The only reason I can think of for McCain to have chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate? Palin has sucked up all the media oxygen. As one journalist said “the Republicans have never been this interesting”. And in an age of celebrity magazines and tabloid TV shows, one of the toughest things for the Republicans has been diverting media attention from the media-friendly Barrack Obama – who has a compelling (although less controversial) story of his own.

I have no problem with the fact Sarah Palin is an interesting, dynamic woman with a complicated life. Who cares if she has a pregnant daughter and a colourful past? Most of us have complicated lives and the more people in politics who have ‘real’ lives rather than skeleton-free sanitised ones the better I believe. Politicians – in every country – should better reflect the population they represent.

My reservation is her inexperience and the fact that it would seem to be either a stupid decision by McCain or a cynical one designed for maximum publicity rather than a complimentary skill set. Oh, and I have to feel a little sad for her four month old disabled son – who she is still breast-feeding – who ain’t going to see much of his mother in the near future.

Go, Obama, go.