What Was McCain Thinking When He Decided On Palin?

McCain certainly had his heart set on Lieberman as a running mate but the religionist powers inside the shrinking tent said they'd walk if he dared. He was too much of a coward, and too driven to get his hands on the White House, to call their bluff. It was then that the Secret Service went out and started guarding Pawlenty and his family. But at the last minute, McCain made history instead: he chose the least qualified, least prepared person in the history of American politics to run as vice president for the man most likely to die before he finishes his term than anyone else ever running for president; yes, someone worse than Dan Quayle. The choice of Palin, someone McCain didn't know and his team didn't bother to vet, over his closest crony and co-conspirator, says more about McCain than about the hapless wretch he picked, someone who is liable to not even make it as running mate all the way to November. Although there was no polling on Palin-- a complete unknown-- the religious right pols promised to deliver the group-think evangelical masses if McCain chose her. The only "vetting" done, was checking with a cabal of right-wing religionists.

For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat turned independent. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that Mr. McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Mr. Lieberman, a supporter of abortion rights, had become too intense to be ignored.

Would they have abandoned him if he actually picked a mainstream conservative instead of a radical right loon from the fringes of American politics? According to this morning's Washington Post many conservatives still distrust McCain. And the article was written by the most pro-McCain shills in the entire national press corps, David Broder. He dredges up some Fox TV interviews from 2000:

Karl Rove, the manager of the Bush campaign, dismissed McCain as someone whose "legislative accomplishments are few and far between, because he cannot work well and bring people together and persuade them of a positive issue." Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), on his way to the leadership of Senate Republicans, said most of his colleagues thought that while Bush was "a bridge builder, Senator McCain is a bridge burner."

Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and a pivotal figure in the conservative movement, told the New York Times at about the same time that while President Ronald Reagan fought the liberal establishment, John McCain "kowtows" to it.

After that Broder goes climbs back into his residence up McCain's ass, interviewing a gaggle of shills like Lindsey Graham and Vin Weber about the greatness of St. McCain.

McCain is a disgusting old man and a freakish lech. Did he pick his "soul mate" based on the same way he picked his two wives-- because she was a beauty pageant contestant? Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post doesn't always get it, but she sure sees right through McCain on this one. "
The spin on McCain's choice of the Alaska governor is that it reinforces his maverick credentials. I see it the opposite way: It undermines them. McCain looks like any other calculating politician, willing to do whatever it takes to win." And why does he keep fingering his wedding ring while his eyes wander all over her torso?