McCain’s Momentous(ly Unfortunate) Decision

I will spend no time today on Joe Biden’s boneheaded remarks about how a President Barack Obama would be tested soon after taking office. It is off-message and perhaps even true. I won’t defend him, but I also don’t find myself feeling sorry for Obama for picking him. Though I shouldn’t feel sorry for John McCain for picking Sarah Palin, I do.

Have fellow bloggers Cheri Jacobus and Armstrong Williams read what I have about Palin in the last 24 hours? McCain had a shot in this election; he was the only Republican — by the admission of most Republicans — who could win the White House this year. He was close, remember? Palin is now his worst liability.

Who did this to McCain? I know his choice of vice presidential nominee is ultimately his own, but who decided that exciting the base was worth the cost of Palin’s heavy baggage? This is a team that either doesn’t vet or knowingly took this on. Neither seems smart.

In just the last 24 hours, we have learned the following: Palin is now officially more of a drag on McCain’s electoral prospects than President Bush.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows Palin has a net-negative favorable/unfavorable rating of 37 percent to 47, the only one of the four nominees to “carry that distinction,” as NBC put it. The New York Times/CBS News poll yesterday found 52 percent of respondents doubt the decisions McCain would make as president because of his choice of Palin. The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found 55 percent of respondents believe she isn’t qualified to serve as president if she had to.

In addition to the fact that Palin was found to have abused power and violated Alaska’s ethics code, she and her husband will give depositions Friday for another probe into the firing of a top public safety official in Alaska. But wait, there’s something new — The Associated Press reported yesterday that Palin “charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and she later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.”

Add it all to the Katie Couric interview, her cavalier fudging on the Bridge to Nowhere and all those other unsavory details about her hiring friends without qualifications to serve in top-paying government jobs in Alaska. Undecided voters seemed to have noticed this stuff.

McCain — who held out hope for picking Joe Lieberman until his staff talked him out of it just days before he picked Palin — becomes visibly frustrated when forced to answer questions about this momentous decision. He has been in this business long enough to know it is the first “presidential” decision a candidate makes to show voters his judgment. McCain talks about how “proud” he is of her, and says Palin is a role model for so many people. He rants about how elitists from the Georgetown cocktail-party crowd who criticize her don’t know what they are talking about. He talks about how she is the most popular governor in the country. He doesn’t make the case that she is ready to step in and lead us through two wars and a recession should something happen to him.

What is telling is that McCain mentioned Lieberman at his debates, but never Palin. The wistful references make you wonder, after what seven weeks of Palin has wrought, if he is thinking, “Thanks but no thanks.”

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