I’ve written below how Sarah Palin not only lacks the experience to be president but also the judgment and temperament for the job. Far more damaging for McCain, however, is that his choice of Palin provides tangible and now readily understandable evidence that John McCain lacks the judgment and temperament for the presidency. You’re already seeing conservative commentators reacting to his decision by calling McCain reckless and the more risky choice in this election.
They say the choice of a vice president is a candidate’s first presidential decision. In his speech last week, Bill Clinton said that on this test Barack Obama hit it out of the park. That may be campaign trail hyperbole. But no one questions that Joe Biden has the experience, knowledge and stature to become president. John McCain has campaigned on a vision of America at war, facing numerous present and potential enemies. And though he faces a not insignificant chance of dying during his first term of office (he’s a 72 year old man who has twice battled cancer), he has picked a running mate who he knows little about and who is manifestly unready to serve as president.
Impulsive, reckless? As Joe Klein puts it, McCain is “He has proven himself, yet again, ready on day one–to shoot from the hip.” It’s hard to see how this doesn’t make a joke out of the importance he’s claimed to place on having a commander-in-chief seasoned and experienced enough to lead in dangerous times.
Just after McCain announced his pick, a number of commentators — some independent analysts and others Republican partisans — said that this was McCain reverting to form. He’s a gambler, he likes rolling the dice, playing craps — to use the most chosen metaphor. (Little discussed is that McCain is, in the literal sense, a big time gambler, though he appears to keep the amount of money he loses under control.) But is that the temperament one wants in a president and commander-in-chief? Someone whose inclination, at critical moments of decision, is toward risky, high-stakes gambles? That kind of erratic behavior is pardonable, even an asset in a senator (who has little direct power beyond 1 of 100 votes and the ability to persuade people). But it’s a dangerous trait for a leader of a country of 300 million.
