Sarah Palin?

For once, Democratic strategist/media opportunist Paul Begala got it right with his initial response to John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate:

“What was McCain thinking?” was the headline on Begala’s first-day blog.

I’ve spent this weekend reading, listening, researching, and thinking about the selection. I still can’t figure out what he was thinking.

For certain, this ought to neutralize the “Too inexperienced to lead” campaign slogan we’ve been hearing for months. McCain can’t talk about Barack Obama and raise that issue without raising the same doubts about his vice presidential running mate. And Democrats would be foolish to raise the experience issue when talking about Palin for fear of reviving the lingering concerns about Obama.

McCain’s selection DOES raise questions about judgment, about whether the best person has been selected for the ticket, and whether he forgot his pledge of just a few months ago that the person he picks for vice president would be able to step in on Day One and take over, if need be.

Clearly, the only criteria McCain cared about in the end was finding a running mate acceptable to the right-wing activists in the GOP.

The fanatics who threatened to “tear apart” the convention if McCain had picked a pro-choice supporter like Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge are today flooding the blogosphere with laughable arguments about Palin being the absolutely best choice for vice president.

It’s troubling to me, and I hope to others, that McCain has only known Palin for about six months, and that they only had one brief phone conversation before selecting her to be his running mate.  Does she know where he stands on top issues of the day? Does he know her position on major issues? Does he really care?

More than anything, this should raise new concerns about whether John McCain should be answering that 3 a.m. phone call.

Tags: election, judgment, McCain, Obama, Sarah Palin