It was a hail mary attempt, but it wasn’t JUST a hail mary attempt. McCain liked that she was a reformer like he was. A maverick. Also, it seemed like a fairly safe pick given that she was the most popular governor in the nation. The McCain team thought they’d uncovered the most underrated political talent in the country, but it turned out that her act didn’t work outside of Alaska.
It’s also quite possible that the real brains in the Palin administration was Todd. Which was much easier to deal with at the state level. In a Presidential campaign your spouse can’t think for you.
That and the fact that she wasn’t corrupt. In states with high levels of corruption, honest politicians get a big boost in popularity just by being honest. She took on the GOP establishment and won, which appealed to McCain.
Quite true. Check out Game Change, an excellent behind-the-scenes account of the 2008 campaign. McCain’s pollsters told him he was already behind in the polls and likely to become even more so, given Obama’s strong campaign, if he didn’t shake up the race with a bold VP pick. On paper and by reputation Palin looked pretty good. But McCain’s inner circle was under a lot of time pressure and didn’t do their due diligence. By the time Palin was revealed in the media glare to be so unprepared and ill-informed, it was too late.
Smilin’ Bill Kristol gushed over Palin. Kristol heads up the leading conservative intellectual magazine, if you want to call it that. While McCain took a reputational hit by giving Palin her platform, none of her early vouchers did to my knowledge. No conservatives questioned their judgment AFAIK. Am I wrong?
I don’t have the book right at hand, but IIRC within a few weeks of Palin’s selection there were murmurings - all off the record - among the conservative commentariat that picking her had been a mistake.