THE OP-ED PIECE THE NEWSPAPERS DIDN’T WANT

“Waves of Wisdom” picked Sarah Palin on July 22, 2008.  Too bad the big city newspapers went with lots of Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty pieces.  Here’s the original …

It’s looking like the bottom of the ninth.  John McCain is down by three runs with a couple of outs.  ”The surge is working” is on third, falling oil prices are on second, and the public’s lingering doubts about Barack Obama’s relative experience are on first.  So, it would seem the Arizona Republican needs a grand slam of a running mate.

The inside-the-Beltway crowd is pretty much right about one thing: the upcoming election is a referendum on Barack Obama.  History shows two-term presidents usually leave the country moving away from them.  Recent polls show eight years of the current administration has it running for the aisles.  Add the excitement that goes along with Obama’s youth and energy as well as the possibility of making a historical choice, and well, it’s all about the O.

Not Oprah or Overstock.com, say the Washington insiders, but whether the Illinois Senator can close the sale by making the public comfortable with the idea of his ascension to the throne.

The pundits are mapping out their cases.  And, they’re sharing the type of simpleton thinking that turns so many off to the political process.  As if, choosing a running mate from a particular state will have any great electoral value.  Hanging chads aside, one needs to go no farther than Al Gore, who remember would probably be president right now, had he been able to carry his own home state of Tennessee.

The McCain campaign must dig much deeper than that.

The pundits say choosing Mitt Romney brings at least 50-million-dollars to the McCain campaign.  But, they seem to have conveniently forgotten that choosing Mitt Romney also brings that certain cheesiness that won him so many votes during the primary season.  If only to have a dollar for each time the former Massachusetts governor bragged about winning another silver on a Tuesday night.  Maybe that makes him perfect for number two.

He’s not though.  The ever-changing Romney will do little to excite people who aren’t already predisposed to voting McCain.  He’s just another filthy rich white guy, something for which the party already gets a bad rap.  And, like John Edwards, he’s a guy who by all accounts didn’t run for a second term back home because he’d have never won.

McCain, who has morphed into a President Bush of sorts, needs someone to remind crucial independents why they liked him so much in 2000.  Alaska’s 44-year-old, first-term governor is just that woman.

Sarah Palin has amassed incredible popularity in the 49th state by crusading against waste and corruption.  She brings the plate of conservative values to the table, but not as June Cleaver.  Pennsylvania’s Ed Rendell dismissed her VP chances at the recent National Governor’s Association conference by joking that her willingness to be the first to do the Electric Slide pretty much eliminated her from contention.  Picture Mitt Romney doing the Electric Slide.  Images of another Massachusetts governor in a tank come to mind.

Palin delivers on another front as well.  The anti-abortion, now mother of five, gave birth to her latest child, despite a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome.  Republicans should take note.  It’s a rare display of practicing what you preach.  Bob Barr’s surprising showing in state polls can only be attributed to the base’s frustration.  Things like a party which preaches fiscal conservatism, then spends like a drunken sailor.  Or, one that rails against nation-building, then theoretically signs up for 100 years in Iraq.  Some would add men eager to start wars, who’ve never served in one.

To say the McCain campaign is off to a rough start would be an understatement.  No, Iraq and Afghanistan don’t share a border.  And, learning the names of the warring factions in Iraq would be a presidential plus.  The idea of a compelling woman to possibly dim the lights a bit on the soon to be 72-year-old couldn’t hurt.  Not to mention, it would quietly reveal more to voters about John McCain’s inner thinking than anything else he says or does.

Americans love an underdog.  And, hundreds of thousands of Germans can’t be wrong: Obama has this thing wrapped up, right.  McCain’s best hope is to give them something to talk about.  Sarah Palin will do that.  Insiders take note: the mother-of-five just may help him with those so-called disaffected Hillary voters.  At the very least, he’ll be setting the table for her seemingly bright political future.

Tags: Alaska, Election 2008, John McCain, McCain, Mitt Romney, Palin, politics, Sarah Palin, VP