The Cheney Precedent, indeed

by folkbum

On Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:

Over the weekend, the Anchorage Daily News discovered a whole new reason Governor Palin is the perfect person to be the next Dick Cheney:

She can look you in eye and tell you black is white.

Especially when there's oil involved.

There's also this from Karl Rove about Sarah Palin:

"I think he's going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice," Rove said. "He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a [swing state]. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president."

Rove singled out [a] governor [. . .] as an example of such a pick.

"With all due respect again to [the governor], [she]'s been a governor for three years, [she]'s been able but undistinguished," Rove said. "I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that [she]'s done. [She] was mayor of the [a small city]"

Rove continued: "So if he were to pick [the governor], it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States."

Okay, I'm just kidding. Rove was really talking about Tim Kaine, Governor of Virginia who made it to the short list but did not actually become the Barack Obama's running mate. Instead, Obama apparently made a non-political choice--to use Rove's formulation--one who instead would be a good vice president as opposed to a good campaign move.

One of the things I found most interesting last week about the selection of Joe Biden is that in 2016, after (let us hope) two terms of an Obama administration, Biden will be too old to run for president. Obama's selection of Biden does not leave any kind of legacy in terms of who would be the next presumptive Democratic nominee. Again, that's a giant signal that Obama was less concerned with the politics of the selection that with its practicality.

There is no question that the choice of Sarah Palin over the other possible candidates was primarily political. Even in the effusive commentary from the righties locally, there's praise less for Palin's strengths as a pol and more for the way the pick changes the campaign. Whatever. We'll give Palin this week and then see whether, after the convention is over, the shine can stay on that apple.