The Choice Not Made
Imagine for a moment that you're John McCain. In making your choice for Vice President, you wanted to do a few different things: 1) you wanted to shake up the race by making a surprising, "mavericky" choice, 2) you wanted to reassure and excite an uneasy base, and 3) you wanted to steal a bit of the "making history" mojo away from Barack Obama by selecting someone who would also be making history if elected. And in exchange for these qualities, you were willing to tap someone relatively inexperienced.
Through this logic, McCain settled on Sarah Palin as his running mate. But isn't there an obvious alternative choice who meets all of these criteria? What about Bobby Jindal? After watching Jindal on television this weekend dealing with Hurricane Gustav, McCain has got to be kicking himself.
Jindal is no less experienced than Palin. In fact, he's the Governor of a much larger state and has a more impressive pre-gubernatorial resume. And what better rebuttal is there to the inexperience argument than to be seen days after your selection dealing with an actual crisis on live television. Talk about executive experience on display. Jindal would have been able to introduce himself to the American people while doing his job and looking extremely competent at it.
Moreover, I don't think there's any question that Jindal would have been every bit as popular with the Republican base as Palin. And unlike Palin, who seems unlikely to attract Democratic cross-over voters, Jindal might well have been able to attract Indian and Asian-American voters who would otherwise have voted Democratic (or not voted at all).
In fact, I don't see anything that Palin brings to the table that Jindal wouldn't have brought in more abundance. I bet McCain wishes he had a do-over on this one.
Through this logic, McCain settled on Sarah Palin as his running mate. But isn't there an obvious alternative choice who meets all of these criteria? What about Bobby Jindal? After watching Jindal on television this weekend dealing with Hurricane Gustav, McCain has got to be kicking himself.
Jindal is no less experienced than Palin. In fact, he's the Governor of a much larger state and has a more impressive pre-gubernatorial resume. And what better rebuttal is there to the inexperience argument than to be seen days after your selection dealing with an actual crisis on live television. Talk about executive experience on display. Jindal would have been able to introduce himself to the American people while doing his job and looking extremely competent at it.
Moreover, I don't think there's any question that Jindal would have been every bit as popular with the Republican base as Palin. And unlike Palin, who seems unlikely to attract Democratic cross-over voters, Jindal might well have been able to attract Indian and Asian-American voters who would otherwise have voted Democratic (or not voted at all).
In fact, I don't see anything that Palin brings to the table that Jindal wouldn't have brought in more abundance. I bet McCain wishes he had a do-over on this one.
posted by A.L. at 4:15 PM
13 Comments:
I've noticed an odd thing about the coverage of the RNC. When CBS was covering the DNC, they had both Trippi and Bartlett, one Democrat (more or less), one Republican.
Now that they're covering the RNC, there is no Democrat, only Bartlett.
What gives?
If he had picked Jindal, you guys would be saying how he should have picked Palin. Please.
Virginia,
No, we'd have wondered why he thought he needed an exorcist in the VP slot.
Of course, had he chosen Jindal, the problem with his attacks on Obama about "experience" would have been shown as bogus as they have been shown.
Since Jindal has been in the national spotlight a good deal longer than Palin, it's very likely there'd be a lot less lurking under the rocks they would turn over.
But that's water over the levee, now. My guess is that McCain is incapable (like a certain other Republican of note) of admitting that he's screwed up. He'll try to tough it out.
When are people going to realise that these candidates are pre-chosen? Does Diebold fraud ring any bells? Palin was chosen because she is a woman which will show a weaker side to Republicans. Obama is a rock star, he'll continue to shine as they want him to. Their is an elite agenda as always in every election.
I guess we'll find out what that is! As usual we will continue to watch the sinking ship of America.
CAL/FL
Now we just have to go hardcore pro life and rally the base that is the only option left.
And before you laugh, the base won it for us in 2004 and it can do it again.
VC--no, we wouldn't be saying he should have chosen Pallin because none of us would have known about this loony from nothing state.
AL--don't give them ideas in case they dump her. Shhh! We want Harriet Meiers for VP!
V.c. - "If he had picked Jindal, you guys would be saying how he should have picked Palin. Please."
Strawman argument. And nonsense to boot. Prior to last week, if you'd have asked people here their opinion of Bobby Jindal the average response would probably be that he's a charismatic and halfway competent Govenor of a relatively populous state. However, mention Sarah Palin's name and you'd get the following response:
"Who the fuck is Sarah Palin?"
Anywho. I personally think that Romney, Ridge, Thune, Pawlenty or Sanford would have been more feasible choices for McCain. And if you're really going to choose a woman for the sheer sake of it, then for god's sake make it someone like Snowe or Dole; not someone with less experience than a newborn, about as much integrity as Michael Jackson and more skeletons in their closet than the Addams family.
V.c. - "And before you laugh, the base won it for us in 2004 and it can do it again."
Not necessarily. In an election as close as 2004 (and, for that matter, 2000 as well), it was floating voters who won the election for Bush, since they were convinced that Bush was a more competent than Commander-in-chief than the plank the Democrats put forward to the electorate as their candidate. 50 million people are not the base, it's the 25% who still like Bush, and that's nowhere near enough to win an election, especially when you consider that Obama has attracted a lot of first-time voters to his campaign, most of whom probably don't even register on a lot of polls.
The fact that states like Montana and North Dakota are even considered to be battleground states (if sites like pollster.com are anything to go by) suggests that McCain is in HUGE trouble.
Seriously, those conservatives who think that their "base" is enough to win a Presidential election are as deluded as the hippies who thought they could carry the election for McGovern in 1972 (and I say this as someone who would have voted for McGovern had I not been a mere twinkle in my father's eye). They're basically two sides of the same coin.
> In fact, I don't see anything that Palin brings to the table that Jindal wouldn't have brought in more abundance.
I'll give you a hint: He fiddles with his wedding ring while he looks at it.
I thought Jindal had ruled out running as John McCain's Veep about a month ago.
You're forgetting about the appeal to disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters.
I'm pretty sure the top brass the GOP genuinely believed that most women are stupid and shallow enough to support a woman regardless of her policies. Their level of respect for the general public is reflected in the policies themselves.
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