Jane Mayer's story on how the McCain campaign came to pick Sarah Palin is interesting. As to the pick itself, it appears to be pretty much what you'd expect. Some including Karl Rove favored Mitt Romney. But to McCain, "all politics is personal", and it would be a cold day in hell before he agreed to run with Romney. Tim Pawlenty and Rob Portman were judged too conventional. The campaign's message was going to be its maverickness, and he wanted a running mate who'd convey that. "The shorter the Washington resume the better." McCain and Lindsey Graham wanted Joe Lieberman, but were apparently talked out of him, fearing a rebellion at the Republican convention. Palin fit the need for an anti-Washington maverick. And McCain apparently wasn't overly worried about the campaign's concerns about her being a novice, or about the fact that he'd spent less than 3 hours with her, total, before announcing her as his running mate.
The more interesting part of the story though is how her name came to be on the short list - of her cultivating the likes of Fred Barnes, Robert Bork, Bill Kristol and Victor David Hanson when they stopped through on right-wing cruises to Alaska. Apparently members of that set, having been wined and dined and enchanted by her (after she sought them out) were beating the drums for her hard, long before August, and it was that behavior that got her onto the short list.
Posted by armand at October 22, 2008 10:00 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics