Below the fold, I have a sampling of media reaction to the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. It starts with the reaction from Alaskan newspapers. They HATE the choice. Then it moves on to lower-48 papers, large and small. They also HATE it. In fact, I don’t remember anything approaching this level of disdain for Dan Quayle. Dan Quayle ruined his reputation over time by his performance on the national stage. But, as a sitting U.S. Senator, he was accorded some initial respect. Sarah Palin is getting no respect. Or, to be more accurate, no one is pretending for one moment that she is qualified to be president of the United States or is accepting any of McCain’s talking points as anything but rubbish. You can walk back a nomination to the Supreme Court, like Harriet Miers. But you can’t walk back a vice-presidential pick. Just ask George McGovern.
Below are reviews on John McCain’s choice in Alaska newspapers,
from more than a dozen national and regional newspaper editorial boards, and
political observers from around the country.
In Alaska…:
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (EDITORIAL): She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest,
much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a
candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully
have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of
experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans
reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?…Most
people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions,
Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political
interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might
fill it. It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not
substance. LINK
Anchorage
Daily News: “She’s not prepared to be
governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said
[State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of
Wasilla]. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the
nation?” LINK
Fairbanks
Daily News-Miner: Lately her
reputation within the state has been bit by allegations of mixing political and
family business, and by mistreating one of the state’s premier marine mammals.
Palin’s catch-phrase of “openness and transparency” has been tarnished by
revelations that staff members tried to have Palin’s former brother-in-law
fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper. Also, the governor of the only
state with polar bears has adamantly opposed listing the animals as a
threatened species, despite strong evidence that global warming has devastated
their sea ice environment off Alaska’s coast. Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist
for Alaska’s second largest newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, called
McCain’s choice of Palin “reckless” and questioned her credentials.
“Sarah Palin’s chief qualification for being elected governor was that she
was not Frank Murkowski,” Cole said of her enormously unpopular
predecessor, who lost favor with Alaskans in part because of unpopular budget
cuts. “She was not elected because she was a conservative. She was not
elected because of her grasp of issues or because of her track record as the
mayor of Wasilla.” LINK
Juneau
Empire (Kate Golden) “Some in Ketchikan react to nomination with concern,
ire”: In her acceptance speech as
McCain’s running mate Friday morning, Palin held up her opposition to the
bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina – the “bridge to nowhere” – as an
example of “the abuses of earmark spending.”…When campaigning in
Ketchikan in September 2006, Palin promised Ketchikan residents the bridge LINK
In Newspapers across the country…:
The Denver Post (EDITORIAL) : Palin an odd choice for VP;
Alaska guv’s inexperience is glaring — and a probe into the firing of her
public safety chief is due just before Election Day: “I served with Hillary Clinton. I know Hillary
Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. You, Sarah Palin, are no Hillary
Clinton.” Sorry to steal Joe Biden’s thunder, but we didn’t want to wait
for the vice presidential candidates’ debate to say the obvious. Yes, John
McCain, who argues with a straight face that Barack Obama’s 12 years in the
Illinois legislature and U.S. Senate aren’t enough to qualify him to run for president,
has picked a running mate who just two years ago was serving as mayor of
Wasilla, Alaska, population 5,470. In short, the presumptive Republican
nominee, an Old Soldier in all senses of that term, drafted the political
equivalent of the Unknown Soldier as his co-pilot. McCain’s pick of Palin
jettisons his attack that Obama isn’t ready to lead and looks more like a
desperate “Hail Mary” campaign tactic aimed at female voters. LINK
Detroit News: McCain rolls the dice in picking Sarah Palin (EDITORIAL)
— …Palin, 44, with less than two years as governor and no foreign
policy experience, can’t be sold as ready to step into the presidency if called
upon. Arizona Sen. McCain, if he wins, will be 72 when he takes office, and the
question of succession is likely to be a concern for voters. LINK
Kansas City Star (EDITORIAL) But as this newspaper
noted earlier this week, the most important question in evaluating a
vice-presidential pick is whether that person is prepared to step into the Oval
Office. Palin, with no national political experience and only a couple years in
the Alaska governor’s office, is a very tough sell for the Republicans on that
score. McCain’s age — he turned 72 on Friday — certainly doesn’t help. The
Republican presidential candidate has emphasized the importance of military and
national security issues, and taken shots at Democratic presidential nominee
Barack Obama the Democratic presidential nominee for having only four years of
experience in the U.S. Senate. Yet McCain now suggests that someone halfway
through her first term as governor is “exactly who this country needs” only one
step away from the presidency. LINK
Tampa Bay Tribune: McCain makes risky choice (EDITORIAL) John McCain can forget about trying to make a campaign
issue out of Barack Obama’s relatively thin foreign policy resume. In an effort
to blunt Obama’s post convention momentum, McCain made history Friday by
choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, the first woman to be
nominated for vice president by the GOP. It is a risky move that stunned even
some party leaders who fear that voters will have trouble imagining the former
beauty queen as commander in chief, if it should ever come to that. The
44-year-old Palin, a former small-town mayor serving her first term as
governor, has no experience in foreign policy LINK
Detroit News: McCain rolls the dice in picking Sarah Palin (EDITORIAL)
— …Palin, 44, with less than two years as governor and no foreign
policy experience, can’t be sold as ready to step into the presidency if called
upon. Arizona Sen. McCain, if he wins, will be 72 when he takes office, and the
question of succession is likely to be a concern for voters. LINK
Bangor Daily News: “A puzzling pick” (EDITORIAL): Sen.
John McCain shook up the political landscape Friday when he picked Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin as his running mate. At a time when the Republican’s biggest
criticism of Democrat Barack Obama is that he lacks the experience necessary to
run the country, it is a big risk that the second seat on the Republican ticket
was given to a first-term governor with no national political experience.
Palin, 44, is in her second year as governor of Alaska. She was previously the
mayor of Wasilla, a town of 9,000. She is the least experienced major party
candidate nominated for national office since Spiro Agnew, then the governor of
Maryland, was picked by Richard Nixon in 1968. “If you are going to go after
Barack Obama on experience … this pick makes no sense,” says University of
Maine political science professor Mark Brewer. LINK
Seattle
Times (EDITORIAL) As governor for less than two years and before that mayor of a
very small town, she’s inexperienced enough to give fits to people worried
about McCain’s health and longevity. McCain turned 72 the day he announced her
selection. If something happens to him, she does not have time to grasp all the
facets of the job, especially in the area of foreign policy… Her office also is
involved in an investigation about the firing of a state public safety
commissioner who refused to fire a trooper involved in divorce proceedings with
Palin’s sister. In a small boon to Democrats, selecting Palin mutes future
Republican attacks on Sen. Barack Obama’s inexperience. LINK
Register Citizen (EDITORIAL): Palin is not ready The
Alaskan economy is nothing like the rest of the country because it is boosted
by oil and natural gas development profits… It’s obvious that McCain’s choice
for running mate is a way for the Republicans to look progressive by putting a
woman on the ticket (although it comes 24 years after the Democrats nominated
Geraldine Ferraro as their candidate for vice president) and appeal to the
conservative wing of his party. It’s also obvious that McCain, if elected, is
counting on surviving a presidential term. LINK
Dallas Morning News (EDITORIAL) The presumptive GOP
presidential nominee’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the most risky
Republican pick for vice president since George H.W. Bush tapped Dan Quayle as
his No. 2. Ms. Palin, 44, has been governor for only two years. The office she
held before that one was mayor of a town about the size of Midlothian. This is
the person Mr. McCain, 72, would install a heartbeat away from the presidency.
The Palin pick means the Republicans have ceded the high ground on the
experience issue. LINK
Register Citizen (EDITORIAL): Palin is not ready The
Alaskan economy is nothing like the rest of the country because it is boosted
by oil and natural gas development profits… It’s obvious that McCain’s choice
for running mate is a way for the Republicans to look progressive by putting a
woman on the ticket (although it comes 24 years after the Democrats nominated
Geraldine Ferraro as their candidate for vice president) and appeal to the
conservative wing of his party. It’s also obvious that McCain, if elected, is
counting on surviving a presidential term. LINK
Washington Post (EDITORIAL): But the most
important question Mr. McCain should have asked himself about Ms. Palin was not
whether she could help him win the presidency. It was whether she is qualified
and prepared to serve as president should anything prevent him from doing so.
This would have been true for any presidential nominee, and it was especially
crucial that Mr. McCain — who turns 72 today — get this choice right…In this
regard, count us among the puzzled and the skeptical…Once the buzz over Ms.
Palin’s nomination dies down, the hard questions about her will begin. The
answers will reflect on her qualifications — and on Mr. McCain’s judgment as
well. LINK
New York Times (EDITORIAL): Governor Palin’s lack of
experience, especially in national security and foreign affairs, raises
immediate questions about how prepared she is to potentially succeed to the
presidency. That really is the only criteria for judging a candidate for vice president.
LINK
Los Angeles Times (EDITORIAL): What happened to his
insistence that a running mate be qualified to serve as commander in chief? …An
even better example is George H.W. Bush’s choice of Dan Quayle in 1988. That
selection, like McCain’s, was designed partly to placate restive Republican
conservatives. Those are not persuasive precedents. In one respect, McCain is
in even less of a position to gamble than were Mondale and Bush. His age makes
it especially important that his running mate be prepared to assume the
presidency at a moment’s notice. LINK
Boston
Globe (EDITORIAL): In picking a first-term governor with no foreign-policy record,
the Republican presidential candidate undermined his own central themes –
experience and national security – and exposed the deep fault lines within his
campaign…But the pick is hard to square with what Republicans have been saying
all week: that Obama is too green to be president. Because Obama has bared his
soul in a bestselling memoir and his decisions have been under a microscope for
the last four years, voters can assess his judgment. Palin, in contrast, has
next to no track record. Her ticketmate would be the oldest first-term
president ever and has had health troubles in the past. McCain, meanwhile, is
struggling to accommodate Palin within the logic of his campaign, which up to
now stressed an existential threat from Islamic fundamentalism. LINK
Dallas Morning News (EDITORIAL) The presumptive GOP
presidential nominee’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the most risky
Republican pick for vice president since George H.W. Bush tapped Dan Quayle as
his No. 2. Ms. Palin, 44, has been governor for only two years. The office she
held before that one was mayor of a town about the size of Midlothian. This is
the person Mr. McCain, 72, would install a heartbeat away from the presidency.
The Palin pick means the Republicans have ceded the high ground on the
experience issue. LINK
Journal News: Any woman won’t do (Nancy Cutler) I’ve
got a message for McCain: Hillaryites didn’t want a woman; they wanted that
woman. If this is his attempt at wooing disaffected Hillary backers, he has
sold all women short. LINK
Altoona Mirror – Locals shocked by McCain’s VP selection (Jessica
VanderKolk) Local voters and party leaders alike expressed shock and surprise
when McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick. LINK
Miami Herald: McCain’s veep choice has Florida risks, rewards
(Marc Caputo, Mary Ellen Klas) Political strategists say
Clinton’s rank-and-file supporters will be tough for McCain and Palin to win.
The ticket’s strong anti-abortion positions make them anathema to liberal
Democrats concentrated in places such as South Florida…On Friday, she may
have made her first official flip flop, saying that she opposed the so-called
”bridge to nowhere” that became a symbol of pork-barrel Washington spending.
Yet in 2006, her spokesman told the Associated Press that she supported the
project LINK
South FL Sun-Sentinel (Josh Hafenbrack, Lisa Huriash, John Tanasychuk)
Sarah Palin faces uphill battle swaying South Florida women” Another
common concern: Palin’s perceived lack of experience, after less than two years
as Alaska governor. Several voters said she’s not ready to take over the
presidency, should something happen to McCain. He turned 72 Friday. LINK
Philadelphia Daily News (Dave Davies)
Franklin & Marshall College pollster Terry Madonna said that Palin’s
personal story is an asset but that he would describe McCain’s pick in three
words. “Risky, risky and risky,” Madonna said. “We just don’t
know how she’ll handle the next nine weeks of campaigning, dealing with all
these complicated national and international issues, debating [Obama’s running
mate] Joe Biden, and having every word scrutinized by an aggressive press
corps.” The greatest unanswered question is whether putting Palin on the
ticket will bring many Clinton Democrats into the McCain column. The Daily News
reached five women who were Clinton primary-election supporters in a March
poll, and none said Palin’s candidacy would change their vote. LINK
Pittsburgh
Tribune Review (By Mike Wereschagin) The choice might undercut a
theme promoted by McCain’s campaign. McCain has touted being more experienced
than Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois. Palin is three years younger
than Obama, 47, and younger than two of McCain’s seven children. Before
becoming governor, Palin served as mayor of Wasilla, a city with fewer than
10,000 people…Democrats noted that Palin is the subject of a legislative
investigation in Alaska over whether she forced out a top government official
because he wouldn’t fire her ex-brother-in-law…”She is a risky
choice,” said G. Terry Madonna, political science professor at Franklin
& Marshall College in Lancaster. “Her record as a reformer and
maverick is very helpful but how can she prep on so many national and
international issues? She hurts the ticket because now the experience argument
is weaker.” LINK
Chicago Tribune (Steve Chapman) Sarah Palin:
McCain’s inexcusable choice: John McCain
has described national security, defense, the war in Iraq and the war on terror
as “the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day.” So
who did he choose for his running mate? Someone who has zero acquaintance with
those issues. The first and last question to be asked about a potential vice
president is: Is he or she prepared to take over immediately as president?
Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden gave that matter the priority it deserves.
The question is even more important for McCain because he’s 72 years old and
has had serious health problems. The chances are considerably higher than usual
that his vice president would have to step into the Oval Office without
notice…this decision mocks McCain’s seriousness on the issues that are supposed
to be his strength. It tells us that he puts his own political fortunes above
the safety of the nation. McCain has done a lot things for his country. He
should have done one more and picked a running mate who makes a plausible
commander-in-chief. LINK
New York Times (Gail Collins): He was looking for
someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism,
the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good
conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of
a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his
foot!…I do feel kind of ticked off at the assumptions that the Republicans
seem to be making about female voters…The idea that women are going to race off
to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and
historically wrong. LINK
AP (Ron Fournier) She is
younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings
an ethical shadow to the ticket. Just 20 months ago, she was mayor of Wasia,
Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the
biggest annual worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod
dog-mushing race… Palin’s lack of experience flies in the face of GOP charges
that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief. McCain himself has said he
was determined to avoid a pick like Dan Quayle, the little-known Indiana
senator George H.W. Bush put on his ticket in 1988 in a choice that proved
embarrassing…But, as McCain suggested himself, his 72nd birthday is a reminder
that age and experience matter. LINK
Boston Globe (Peter S. Canellos) McCain will have a hard time persuading people that he chose the
most qualified person to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Palin, at 44,
has been governor of one of the nation’s least-populous states for just two and
a half years. LINK
TIME (Amy Sullivan) It appears
Sarah Palin was picked not just for her appeal to women voters but also to
please social conservatives. If so, this could be Harriet Miers redux. And that
didn’t work out so well the first time. LINK
Chicago Tribune (Andrew Zajac) John
McCain may have some work to do with Republican Party pros regarding his
selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate if the underwhelmed
reaction of former Maryland GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich is any indication…
“I gotta go digest this choice,” he mumbled to a couple of
acquaintances. LINK
ABC News (Jake Tapper) Palin
doesn’t exactly scream “experience,” which is McCain’s main argument
against Obama. For a decade she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, which has a
population of approximately 8,471, which the Obama campaign says is less than
1/20th the size of his former state senate district. Palin has been governor
for two years. Some might argue that in terms of experience she makes Obama
look like Robert Byrd. In July, Palin told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that “as
for that VP talk all the time, I tell ya, I still can’t answer that question
until, until somebody answers for me ‘What it is exactly that the vice
president does every day?” LINK
TIME (Mike Murphy) McCain’s
mighty and oft-swung Obama swatting hammer of experience has been instantly
changed from steel to rubber. VP examination stakes are a little higher for McCain,
will she pass the ready on Day One test with less than two years in a (small)
statehouse? Former full Colonel in the Pat Buchanan brigades LINK
Washington Post (Robert Barnes and Michael D. Shear) When he ended months of speculation Friday, McCain did not laud
Palin as immediately ready to take over, which he once said was his highest
priority for a running mate. LINK
Chicago Tribune (Mark Silva) When
Obama was looking at Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia as a possible
running mate, Karl Rove, the “architect” of President Bush’s election
campaigns, dismissed his experience – a governor for three years and mayor of
103rd largest Richmond. We’re not sure where Wasila ranks. LINK
On TV…:
CNN David Gergen: But what surprises me so
much is, that John McCain again and again and again has said the transcendent
issue of our times is the fight against terrorism and that we live in a dark,
dangerous world. And the most important thing is to have a commander in chief
that’s ready. So, here to reach out – and he’s criticized Barack Obama as not being
ready – to reach out to Sarah Palin who has no national security experience, no
national security exposure, and say you’re my standby and I’m 72 years old and
I’ve had some bouts with melanoma, I think that’s a very large gamble and I
wonder how it’s going to play out with the American people. LINK
MSNBC
Chuck Todd: But I tell you there’s going
to be a lot of questions about somebody who was the mayor of Wasilla just three
years ago, whether she is ready to be Commander-in-Chief, and just as you
brought up, Matt, because of McCain’s age, that’s going to be an issue. LINK
