Did McCain Take Too Big a Risk with Palin?

By Anastacia Mott Austin

John McCain has had the world of politics abuzz ever since he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate last week.

He even successfully stole some of Barack Obama’s thunder after the soaring success of the Democratic convention, muting the press coverage of that event with his unconventional choice.

Let’s just say reaction has been mixed.

What an exciting choice, said some. Sarah Palin reinforces McCain’s (weakening) reputation as a maverick, and her staunchly conservative views and religious convictions had evangelicals, an important Republican base, excited about the McCain ticket.

In addition, the Alaska governor enjoys an almost unheard-of approval rating of 80% in her home state, after two years in office, something other states’ governors can only dream about.

She has a reputation for cleaning up messes, and has by almost all reports done a bang-up job as governor so far.

The fact that she’s a former beauty queen, a self-labeled "hockey mom," and has five children (including a five-month-old with Down’s Syndrome) were only seen as pluses.

But then the fairy-tale began to unravel. First, the investigation of Palin’s firing of a state commissioner came to light, as he claimed she fired him for not buckling to her wishes to fire a former brother-in-law, who was a state trooper.

Then, news broke of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy, and the fact that the girl is not married to the teen father of the baby.

Some conservatives questioned the family values of a woman who might neglect her special-needs baby, who needs all the extra time and attention its parents can give, and her teen daughter on the verge of motherhood, who might need some extra attention from mom. (Others pointed out that a male candidate would not have to face such questions about his own parenting responsibilities).

Some fuss arose about whether Palin had intentionally kept the information about her daughter from the vetting committee, but the McCain campaign stands by its word that Palin was thoroughly vetted. They added that candidates’ families should be off-limits to media criticism, something that McCain opponent Obama has agreed with.

More troubling to many potential McCain voters, though, is the fact that Sarah Palin could be a heartbeat away from being President. Can voters see her in the office and feel confident that they’re in good hands?

Many McCain supporters can get past the fact of her daughter’s mini-scandal, saying that it only proves the family’s commitment to their pro-life values, that Palin sticks to her (moose-hunting) guns about her beliefs, even when it’s not easy. Everybody’s human, and everyone’s children occasionally make mistakes we wish they hadn’t, they say.

And few politicians don’t have some potential snag in their ethical resumes, so the investigation over the state commissioner can be overlooked. Take the example of Joe Biden, and his 20-year-old plagiarism accusation. Nobody’s completely scot-free.

But that nagging question rears its head again: can voters see Sarah Palin taking over the number one job? Negotiating with leaders of other countries? Taking a hard line against terrorism? Dealing with complex domestic budgetary and tax issues?

McCain representatives counter with the fact that several Presidents (Carter, Reagan, Clinton) took the job after serving as governors, and that all candidates, experienced or not, would be expected to fill a cabinet with respected advisors.

And perhaps the McCain campaign is hoping to emphasize Palin’s inexperience and compare it to Obama’s. Unlikely, but it’s always a possibility.

There are several hurdles to overcome with McCain’s choice. Most voters say that Palin’s gender is not one of them, and that they can overcome her family issues and legal troubles.

But it comes down to the difficulty some people have in visualizing this candidate standing in front of us all as the leader of the free world. It’s a risk McCain is clearly willing to take. But what about the rest of us?