CHARLOTTE, N.C.--John McCain really, really wants to win. So badly,
in fact, that he choose a veep who has the same handicap he's
always criticizing Obama for--inexperience. Only worse.
I just landed here in North Carolina after taking a 6:45 a.m. flight
out of Denver. This meant, of course, that I didn't get to experience
the revelation of McCain's new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin,
in real time. But the awkward timing did afford me an interesting
vantage point on the announcement, as all of the Democratic delegates,
strategists and various and sundry other politicos on board my Airbus
A321 learned the news simultaneously, the moment the plane touched down, from
the tiny flickering screens of their trusty CrackBerries.
The best way to describe the reaction aboard U.S. Airways Flight 1520: shock and awe.
I've done eight or nine "Veepwatch" profiles of McCain's possible
picks: Romney, Pawlenty, Portman, Ridge et al. I never bothered to
include Palin. The main reason: with only a small-town mayoralty and less than two years of
governoring under her belt, the Alaskan, I suspected, would have a
tough time passing McCain's "is she ready to be president?" test--the
candidate's (oft-repeated) top criterion for picking a veep. "I'm aware
of the enhanced importance of this issue given my age," McCain told Don
Imus in early April, and it was hard to see how asking someone with an
even shorter C.V. than Obama to stand a mere (septuagenarian's) heartbeat away
from the Oval Office wouldn't hinder the Republicans' ability to attack
the Illinois senator for his alleged "inexperience."
But now my gut tells me this won't be a huge problem for Crystal
City--even though the Dems will rightly do their darndest make it one.
"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero
foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," said
Obama spokesman Bill Burton in an immediate statement (watch for the
coming swipes at Palin's ties to Big Oil). The problem, though, is that every time Chicago calls Palin
green, it gives McCain yet another opportunity to question Obama's own
resume. The pick presents Democrats with a knotty challenge: how do you
argue that a fresh, groundbreaking Washington outsider is too
inexperienced to be second fiddle while at the same time arguing that
Obama--a fresh, groundbreaking Washington outsider himself--is ready to
lead the free world?
The truth is, no one votes against a ticket topped
by someone as seasoned as McCain solely because the No. 2 isn't an old
Washington hand--especially when she's as compelling and complementary
a character as Palin, a youngish former beauty-queen and mother of five
who hunts, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, eats moose hamburgers,
owns a float plane and has branded herself as a candidate of "reform" and "change." But plenty of folks are willing to reject a No. 1. because of a skimpy resume. In other words, experience is
an argument McCain WANTS to have--and Palin, oddly enough, helps him have it. And it's
no coincidence that the people Palin was chosen in part to
woo--disaffected Hillary Dems--tend to think that Obama is not
qualified for the White House. She's a political pick meant for maximum
electoral impact. Whether she'd make a good vice president is another story.
As thumbs twiddled over trackballs and Beltway types
barked into their phones, I overheard a few telling reactions. "It's
very savvy," said a black strategist heading to Washington, D.C. "Biden
can't really hit her hard because she's a woman. He risks looking
sexist." A stewardess said she was "pissed": "Does he think we're
stupid enough to vote for a woman just because she's a woman?"
Meanwhile, the man seated next to me, also en route to the capital,
read a quote from Karlo Rove about the pick "reshaping both
parties' coalitions" and pumped me for more info. A few rows
back, a woman called a colleague to ask if Palin is "attractive." "Is she attractive?" she repeated when her interlocutor
misheard. "IS SHE ATTRAC... nevermind." But the most revealing response
came from a tall gentlemen with reading glasses perched on the end of
his nose. "Whooooaaaa," he said into his phone. "Sarah Who?"
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