Sarah Palin - A Bridge Too Far?

OK.  I've just surfed my way through the Sunday morning news shows, got the poop on John McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.  One thing I can report about the reporters: the roundtable discussions finally got around to asking about Obama and the Democratic convention as a near afterthought near the end of the broadcast.  So one goal was accomplished by the well timed announcement of John McCain's surprise running mate - finally generating some press excitement in what he was up to and pushing Obama off the front page.

Lots of talk about Hillary's women, Reagan Democrats, and the experience issue.  One point I didn't hear addressed, though, is the following:

If I were singly focused on seeing a woman elected President of the United States at the earliest possible moment, my vote would now have to go to John McCain.  If Barack Obama is elected, he will presumably seek a second term, ruling out a woman Democratic candidate until 2016, probably too late for Hillary Clinton to be in the running.  On the other hand, if McCain is elected this year, as a one term President his Vice President will likely be handed the baton to run in 2012, so we have Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket.  And, as Maureen Dowd pointed out in her inimitable way in an August 20 NY Times column, a loss by Obama this year should deliver the 2012 Democratic nomination to Hillary with little more than a perfunctory nod to the competition.

Now that I've got that on the table, let's turn to a few early observations about the new lineup.  

No doubt Sarah Palin will be a person with whom many Americans can identify, who represents values and a way of life that connect to the voters in a way that Barack Obama can not, and who will interest them to a degree that John McCain apparently does not.  She also sits out there now as siren to the Obama campaign, tempting them to utter the challenge of "experience"; each time they do so, they will be clobbered with the fact of their own candidate's dearth of relevant experience for the job he seeks.  Indeed, if anyone's going to learn how to be President while on the job, let it occur while living in the Naval Observatory rather than the White House.

With all of that said, however, I admit to being a bit put off by the apparent fact that the Republicans, and John McCain in particular, think that the race for President can be won merely by putting out the right symbol to the voters.  True, McCain might well perceive that what he is running against is little more than a symbol, so they're only fighting fire with fire.  But as a citizen, I hope that the process by which we choose our leaders will prove itself to be more serious than just another season of American Idol.