I’m sure there was another female he could hav picked. But she was very good a getting support from the religious right, who tended to dislike McCain. In fact, almost everyone I know who self-identifies as a “fundamentalist” really, really liked Palin. Her stupidity was considered a bonus, as she’d have to listen to God.
He had to go that far down the ladder to find a Republican woman who wasn’t pro-choice. He really wanted Lieberman, but the fundies were threatening to riot at the Convention if he picked a pro-choice running mate, so he tried to go for someone who would simultaneously appease the god shriekers and pull in disgruntled Hillary voters. That was a ridiculous miscalculation to begin with (and a sexist one), and it was amplified even more by the fact that she turned out to be a moron (which was a plus for the fundies, but was a deal breaker for Hillary fans) and an ethically challenged egomaniac – things he would have known if he’d bothered to vet her with anything more than a Google search. Hell, he could have asked anyone in Alaska.
If your dog needs surgery, your daughter got knocked up, you got fired from your job, your house is on fire and all you have left is ten bucks, buying a lottery ticket is an excellent move.
Just saying.
There were. Snowe or Hutchinson. But both are RINOs not passing the abortion litmus test. And Snowe is old - and that was already a problem for McCain himself.
The stupidest thing about her selection- at least before he allowed her to speak on camera- was her lack of experience. Obama’s lack of experience on the national level was the gap that he couldn’t close and was McCain’s best weakness to exploit- it couldn’t be construed as racism, it was a reasonable target, it’s something that Obama could not possibly change and something that Hillary had used and even Obama supporters admitted was his weak spot.
McCain rants and rails about this lack of experience himself- quite validly. Figuring out what your opponent cannot do that you can and how to exploit that is one of the most ancient rules of combat- if you have numbers and they don’t then you choose somewhere that you overwhelm them in the open, if they outnumber you then you choose a bottleneck where their numbers are no advantage, Strategy 101. Instead he figured out what he could do that Obama couldn’t and then hobbled himself.
I think the McCain-Palin ticket will be just as studied as the Kerry-Edwards as one of the two “stupidest run campaign that could easily have been won” in political history and it’s ironic they happened consecutively.
Mary could have beaten the crap out of Linda Tripp.
I don’t think any republican ticket could have easily won in 08, honestly it would have been almost impossible no matter who got the nomination for either side.
Mary had the crazy on her side, though. That gives an edge.
This has been hashed and rehashed millions of times, of course, but it was never going to be easy for any Republican to win that campaign with the economy as the top issue.
Why did McCain pick her? The really short version (I think) is, his campaign desperately needed a shot in the arm, he needed to appeal to the far right, he believed he had an opportunity with Hillary’s feminist base, and he liked the idea of a risky, surprising choice.
The far right would never have gone for Obama or Hillary. The most they would have done is obstained (not likely) or write in a third party candidate (also not likely with the Obama momentum).
In other news- Johnston’s [del]pimp[/del]manager was on a CNN entertainment blip last night assuring people that (his terms) “the pics will show the full Johnston” (yuk yuk). Meanwhile Levi’s hitting the gym several hours every day to gear up for the shoot. It’s nice to see a young man take his obligations seriously.
This is going to be so fun.
It’s not that they were going to vote for Obama. He needed them to come out and vote for him, or he was probably going to lose anyway.
Well, Todd, aka “First Dude” doesn’t exactly strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer either. So it looks like they were made for one another.
Rump bump.
Get 'em while they last: video of leaked obviously NSFW Levi nude shots (lots of naked butt, no frontal).
Interesting - thanks. Actually, he looks better than I though he would - on recent television sightings he looks a little, uh, “well-fed”, but I guess it was just the clothes he was wearing as this isn’t bad (like I should talk!). Sort of the guy-next-door type and not your usual overly-buffed model.
Sarah can’t seem to shut up about Levi:
But the skirmish is getting attention:
Like she won’t be checking out the Levi sans Levi’s pics.
Oh hell ya. Plus I’m damned near convinced they have a pact and probably call each other with disposable cell phones to coordinate how to cross pollenate each other: “Okay, I’ll mention your upcoming fragrance line Rogue when I denounce you on Maury Povich if you’ll mention the possibility of me getting a guest shot on GLEE when you’re on The View”.