The issue of judgement has featured prominently in the current race to the White House. In the democratic primary both Senators Obama and Clinton questioned the others judgement, especially, surrounding the Iraq war. Both campaigns were trying to advance the argument that when it comes to the office of the Presidency, possessing a prescient judgement is of high importance.
The issue of Judgement cropped up regurlarly in the debate between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain as well, once again, mainly around the issue of the Iraq war.
However, given recent developments in the race, I would propose that a different, and more revealing standard be used to assess the quality of the candidates' judgement, namely, their running mates.
I believe that Sen. McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his VP, is downright reckless and demonstrates the poorest of judgement on his part. Given Obama's choice of Biden, against the background of gender divisions within the democratic party, choosing a woman was a politically expedient thing to do. Selecting a female VP was a clever choice, especially a conservative candidate who could rally the Republican base and attract female and male Reagan democrats, although the polls show that White women are evenly split between the two candidates. Thus, theoretically, as a campaign strategy Palin could be viewed as a "good" choice to get McCain into the White House.
However, any VP selection must be based on qualities that extend and can be used beyond the campaign. This is because the VP assumes the office of president should anything happen to the President which would render him/her unable to lead. This consideration should have been paramount in McCain's mind since he is 72 years old and has fought several bouts with cancer. Why would he choose a person whose political career consists of being a Mayor of a town of 7,000 people and Gov. of Alaska for 2 years? Why would he choose a person who only obtained her passport for the first time, last year? Why would he choose a person whose foreign policy experience consists of being able to see Russia from her State?
Sarah Palin is, beyond all reasonable doubt, clearly in over her head. She is not the least bit qualified to be VP. Sarah Palin isnt qualified to be governor of any State other than Alaska, a State that has a population size that is half that of Nassau County on Long Island.
Beyond holding Sarah Palin accountable for being as clueless as she is, the ultimate blame goes to Sen. John McCain whose poor judgement is responsible for placing the VP seat within her reach.
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3 comments:
hmmm..i didn't notice anything about the qualifications of Biden. They're both terrible running mates, one has just been terrible a lot longer. He's the same one who was making racist statements about Barack earlier, he voted to invade Iraq back in 98 talking about Saddam had WMD's........
Neither running mate is perfect, nor is Obama and McCain. However, Biden at least has a deeper understanding of the issues that a VP will have to deal with once in office. The fact is a VP candidate must be double qualified. He/She must be qualified for the VP and the President positions and Sara Palin is qualified for neither.
Between Biden and Palin I would have to say Biden is by far a better choice than Palin. During the VP debate Palin proved to be quite politically naive.
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