How Well Did McCain Vet Governor Sarah Palin?



(image via nytimes)

Gut-instincts are wholly overrated; we prefer cool logic and the scientific method wielded by a razor-sharp intellect. Leaving aside the clearly odd family values-underage pregnant daughter hypocrisy, there's the question of Senator John McCain's judgement. Whether or not the senior senator from Arizona actually knew about his running mate's daughter, he was going to say that he did. That's politics, and we will probably never know if that was indeed the case.

The decision to go with a little known and untested Alaskan Governor surprised everyone, even the beat reporters covering his end of the campaign. As the details come out about the speed of McCain's process, it recalls to mind the "governing from the gut" of the current President, which falls neatly into the narrative that the Democrats scripted in their convention. Bush and McCain, brothers in governing on "instinct": only those instancts are wrong. From Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times:

"At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.

"Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

"But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

"Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.

"With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later."

Haven't we had enough of governing from "the gut," and "instinct"? It sounds like reptilian brain stem behavior. Remember where governing by instincts got us on Putin? Even "the man with the golden gut" Les Moonves ran dry on the Katie Couric call. Whatever happened to good old fashioned intellect and logic?