McCain's Problem

I don't know about you, but I'll bet that, for a lot of Republicans, Joe Lieberman is looking pretty damn good around now.

John McCain is sending a squadron of operatives to Alaska to find out what else they might have missed about Sarah Palin -- besides the knocked-up teenage daughter and the husband with the DUI arrest, that is. A bit like closing the barn door after the cow's gotten out, if you ask me.

This is starting to look a little like 1972, for those of you whose memory of politics goes back that far. George McGovern chose Senator Thomas Eagleton to be his running mate, only to discover that Eagleton had mental health issues that were considered at the time to be disqualifying, and which caused him to drop out of the race.

But the funny thing is that McCain is really fucked. In theory, he could replace her now -- after all, Palin hasn't even been officially nominated by the convention -- but in a very short time Sarah Palin has become the "ooomph girl" of the rabid right, the very base that McCain most needs to shore up if he wants to have any hope of winning in November. If he drops her now, he alienates a part of the Republican party that he just can't afford to offend. If he doesn't drop her, he runs the risk of alienating everyone else.

McCain better hope (pray is more like it) that nothing else pops up in the near future about Sarah Palin's past (and keep in mind that the woman is already under investigation -- something that McCain's people knew when he picked her). What else have they missed? What other skeletons does she have in her closet? Because anything else just might prove to be fatal.

But let's be clear about something. I feel bad for Bristol Palin (not least because she has a mother who's stupid enough to saddle her with a name like "Bristol"). A 17-year-old girl from Alaska who's suddenly thrust into national prominence because a teenage hockey player and self-professed "fucking redneck" was too stupid to put on a condom deserves our compassion, not our scorn. The issue here is not the daughter.

The issue is McCain's judgment.

Naming a vice president is the most important decision that a candidate has to make, and it's pretty obvious that McCain made a hasty and ill-informed decision. What does that say about his qualifications to be president? That's the issue that the left has to keep hammering away at -- that McCain's choice of Sarah Palin is indicative of serious flaws in the way John McCain makes decisions -- flaws that could have serious if not deadly consequences should he get into the White House. And we can't afford to take a chance like that at this point in our history.

You have to wonder if the McCain camp is second-guessing themselves and quietly wondering who else might be available if they have to bail on Sarah Palin. The problem is that if they do, the campaign is pretty much over. For better or worse, they're stuck with her.

Sort of like a shotgun marriage. Appropriately ironic, don't you think?