Checkmate: The Sarah Palin Pick

It was shocking, against the grain, and most of all, brilliant.  I speak of only one thing, the selection of Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin, as the running mate for Republican Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain.

Palin accomplishes what was once considered to be unthinkable – she energizes the base behind a candidate they were willing to let lose.  The way some conservative looked at the election, they were willing to concede defeat to Obama, and open the doors for a conservative candidate in 2012 under the belief that if it took Jimmy Carter to get Ronald Reagan, it would take Obama to get another Reagan-esque candidate.

Republicans were prepared for a McCain-Lieberman ticket.  They fully expected the worst.  Instead, they got a candidate from the west who offers serious change, and conservative principles.

Governor Palin is a strong pro-life candidate, a major issue for Republicans.  She is also big on drilling for oil in America and trying to find alternative fuels.  Palin also believes in traditional marriage while not denying same-sex couples state benefits, is a life-time member of the NRA, does not believe in the legalization of marijuana, doesn’t believe global warming is man made, and supports the war while asking for an exit strategy.

Hallelujah.

Of course, Plain comes with her own weaknesses, the biggest being her inexperience.  This, however, is very hard for the left to attack, as she was in some type of office for 5 years longer than Barack Obama, is commander and chief of the Alaskan National Guard, where she has lead them into battle against wildfires, and has executive experience, something neither Obama, Joe Biden, nor McCain can boast.  Being that Palin is on the ticket to be the number two Republican, and Obama is trying to be the number one Democrat, attacks on her inexperience can hurt him even more.  She also has minor foreign policy experience, having to deal with Canada, and in some cases Russia.

Obama is already walking the tight rope with women after former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro accused Obama of sexism against Hillary Clinton.  Ferraro has also publicly toyed with the idea of voting for McCain and Palin recently, a move that can really hurt Obama’s hole on the female demographic.

Palin also helps McCain appeal to Obama’s message of change.  She is so young, and so far from Washington, that she is the exact opposite of everything a Washington insider stands for.  Governor Palin even credits her youth and inexperience to help clean out corruption in Alaska.  With McCain’s record of being anti-insder, this becomes another edge for his campaign.  Keep in mind that Biden has been in the Senate since Palin was nine years old, and is the definition of Washington insider.

The left has already seen the problems that arise with attempting to attack her, and have stooped so low as to claim she faked her most recent pregnancy to cover for her daughter, Bristol.  While web sites dissected pictures of Bristol for baby fat, great for a seventeen year olds mental state, witnesses gave reports of seeing the Governor pregnant waiting for a commercial flight.  Apparently, she sold the states private jet as a cost cutting procedure.  While news recently broke of Bristol being 5 months pregnant, and having the child, the pregnancy was hardly a secret in Alaska, as Nathan Thornbugh reported for Time.  Even he thinks attacking this is difficult, as Palin’s feminist group is anti-birth control, and that “(t)he Palin family seems to share the same pro-life value going back at least as far as anyone can remember, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Bristol wore those values.”

Even Obama called off the hounds on this, reminding people that his mother was only 18 when he was born, and also saying that family should be off limits.  That helps him, assuming Michelle doesn’t put her foot in her mouth again.

Palin also has the attraction of having a son who is going to be deployed to Iraq.  If nothing else, this keeps McCain in good standing with military families across the country.
The biggest negative may be the potential controversy regarding the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan.   It is being investigated on the belief that Palin may have fired him because he refused to fire Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law.  Wooten had made death threats to Palin’s father.  The question becomes, does this paint her as a power abuser, or someone protecting her family?

One downfall is that neither McCain nor Palin are that strong on the economy.  But what McCain has not done as of yet, is use the Mitt Romney wild card.  The self made millionaire has become a major political player since the primary, and has said just about everything right.  Jim Cramer has called him one of the best business men in the world, as he resurrected Bain & Company and the 2002 Olympics, and created Bain Capital.  An announcement by McCain that Romeny would take an economic position in his White House could send conservatives and economic independents into a furry of support, while not allowing the left at attack his philosophy or religion.

The selection of Sarah Palin has made the election a very difficult one to run for Barack Obama.  One small slip could cost him big time, and he doesn’t have much to attack with.  McCain may have checkmated Obama before this thing even got going.

The quest to November should become real interesting.