Update: McCain Selects Gov. Sarah Palin as Running Mate

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

I don't think the pick was brilliant at all. Interesting, yes. Brilliant,that remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, we still haven't seen how this woman responds to the national spot light. The other three candidates have been vetted and then some for the past nineteen months. She'll get her's condensed over the next two. I have no doubt that she's smart and a solid politician, but she'll have to flesh that out for all to see.

Also, I feel there's far more downside than upside to this pick. For one, if McCain somehow thinks this will sow up the disaffected Hillary supporters, I think that's a serious miscalculation on his part and could have a serious backlash. In other words, this pick somehow suggests that these women were in it because of gender and not passionate about issues like a woman's right to choose. Speaking of which, she's a staunch conservative on most major issues that matter to women of Hillary's ilk and that of the Dem. party.

So on paper this pick looks interesting, but let's see how she performs in the ring of battle and on the stump day in and day out.

The Palin move wasn't meant to go after Hillary supporters as much as it was to energize the conservative base. Conservatives have been very concerned about McCain's committment to conservative social values, and they vowed to give him a hard time if he selected Joe Lieberman as his running mate.

When it comes to Hillary supporters, 75% of them said they supported Obama before he picked Biden. When he picked Biden and passed over Hillary, only 66% of Hillary supporters said they would support Obama.

The act of passing over Hillary for VP appeared to alienate some of her supporters, and McCain sensed that he could appeal to them. But he's not doing that through Palin, Palin is there to pander to the conservatives. He's going to appeal to Hillary's supporters through his own centrist tendencies.