By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Palin Going Rogue?
Interesting piece from Ben Smith on Politico about how Sarah Palin is reportedly increasingly ignoring the advice of her Republican party handlers, who she blames for her tarnished media image, and “going rogue” in some of her decisions.
Translation: Whether she hurts the McCain campaign or not in the waning days left to McCain to make up lost ground, Palin is going to do her best to try to salvage her own political reputation. Moreover, she’s repeatedly not taken responsibility for her own contributions to the tarnishing of her image: Her glaring inadequacy to be a candidate for the vice-presidency, allegations of abuse of power (Troopergate and the state of Alaska paying heaps of cash for her kids to travel with her), the colossal PR misstep of the $150,000 campaign wardrobe, and Palin’s makeup artist being the highest-paid member of the campaign staff for October.
No matter how you look at it, or which side of the aisle you’re on politically, the McCain camp’s choice of Palin as his running mate was just a huge, huge misstep. Joe Lieberman or Mitt Romney would have been much stronger contenders than Palin, but if McCain wanted to be a “maverick” by choosing a woman as his running mate, there were any number of more qualified female Republican candidates he could have chosen. McCain would have been in a stronger position to challenge Obama at the polls next week with just about anyone but Palin as his VP choice.
Any McCain supporters out there who have a different view, with a perspective on why Palin was not a terrible choice in every respect, I’d love to hear why you think so …
Kim, it’s moderately well-known that McCain wanted Ridge or Lieberman, but the wacko far-right wing of the party (which is to say, the party) pretty much forced Palin on him to shore up a base that still regards McCain as a closet moderate. He doesn’t deserve the blame for picking her, but he does deserves the blame for not having the balls to tell them to fuck off and selecting whomever he wanted. If he can’t stand up to his own party, how can he stand up to…?