The VP Decision: Between Lackluster And Disastrous

By Broadside Opinion Columnist Brandon Cosby

The charge of any vice presidential candidate is to do no harm. Above all else, a candidate’s choice of a running mate should never reflect poorly on the top of the ticket. Such criteria narrows down the field of potential vice presidents tremendously, automatically removing those with even the slightest imperfections or hint of scandal in their past. Given this, one would think Senators Barack Obama and John McCain would have chosen better. Both vice presidential candidates have major blights on their records, but one is oh-so-much worse.

Long-serving senator and Obama running mate Joe Biden comes with a slew of experience and gravitas. He is nearly unmatched in his foreign policy dealings in the Senate and his time as a legislator only helps bring policy credibility and experience to a ticket lacking both. But just as Biden brings many good things, he also brings some things quite terrible. He is an admirable man, but he is also a veritable gaffe machine. Long-winded and prone to saying whatever damn thing is on his mind, the senator from Delaware has been caught on camera cracking some wildly insensitive jokes about Indian immigrants and some genuinely uncomfortable “compliments” about Obama himself. To boot, 20 years ago, the senator's presidential campaign was derailed over plagiarism allegations.

These incidents may be small in the realm of politics and long forgotten by most, but they only serve to be rediscovered when a candidate is swept back into the public spotlight as a vice presidential nominee. And when the bottom of the ticket looks bad, the top starts looking the same.

Now, a little over a week ago, seemingly most of the civilized world was coming off the collective high of Obama's historic acceptance speech and quickly turning their attention to McCain's soon-to-be announced vice presidential pick. With the previous week's speculation focusing on everyone from former governor Mitt Romney to Senator Joe "What's My Appeal?" Lieberman (none of them at all thrilling), the selection of a little-known governor from Alaska surprised almost all. Yet as poorly as Biden may reflect on Obama, the governor of Alaska looks far worse.

Sarah Palin has served less than two years as governor of Alaska. Before that she served as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a small town with a population of less than 9,000.
While McCain surrogates with trumpet that she has more “executive experience” than even McCain, she still lacks experience in dealing with global issues. And as a former mayor of a town whose police department’s latest press release begins with a moose/truck collision report, it’s hard to see how being in charge of such a remote town for eight years prepares her for the challenges of higher office.

Nuclear proliferation, genocide across the globe, devastating famine, Islamo-Fascism, our falling standing in the world, Russia and Georgia—all these are truly demanding issues that are calling us on the world stage right now. They require experience—at least more than Palin has. And as the lady one step from the presidency, she would be terrifyingly unprepared for the dilemmas facing this country. She is not qualified to be anywhere in the line of succession, let alone the first in line. Barring some revelatory crash course in foreign policy, she would be a disaster in an emergency.

These shades of inexperience only serve to hurt McCain and completely undercut his favorite line against Obama, that he's too inexperienced. But even forgetting her woeful unpreparedness and tactical problems, there’s so much more harm Palin can still do.

She carries with her potential scandals and message-derailing details aplenty: Troopergate, her democratic family, her husband's secessionist views, laughing at her opponent being called a “bitch” and a “cancer,” and the big problem that no one should be discussing, her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy. And that's just a few.

None of these are comfortable issues and yes, one of them should be completely off limits, but the sheer avalanche of political baggage has some of the more forward-thinking on the left playing the governor up as the next Thomas Eagleton. Just like the vice presidential pick of over 30 years ago, they hope the governor will be forced to drop off the ticket if they just heckle loud enough.

While many of the charges may have merit, and while she is a dangerous selection both for McCain and potentially the country, there is no way Palin will be replaced as the Republican running mate. She has created too much excitement and money on the right for the short term and people are more than willing to strike back at these allegations as “sexist” and “elitist.”

They are anything but. They are the exact questions that would be asked of any male candidate in her position. It comes down to the simple fact that Palin not the right choice and should have been the last choice of the McCain campaign. And while Biden may not have been the wisest, problem-free choice for the Democrats, for any negative he has, she has three more. In the coming months Palin will become a drag on the Republican ticket and, while she will not be replaced, she will send the campaign swerving off course—like a moose into a truck.