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Sen. John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate has certainly attracted attention, with many calling it a bold stroke that has energized his campaign.
But this actually follows a traditional Republican story line:
1) Candidate A gains the presidential nomination, but
2) Candidate A still needs to placate the red-meat faction of GOP, so
3) Candidate A picks Candidate B for vice-president, who
4) Attracts strong criticism from some thoughtful Republicans, along with ridicule from the liberal intellectual media establishment, which
5) Makes the red-meat faction cherish Candidate B even more, so that
6) Candidate A can't dump Candidate B, even when he'd like to.
The pattern may have started in 1952, when Gen Dwight Eisenhower got the Republican nomination. The hard-core Republicans that year supported Ohio Sen. Robert Taft. Eisenhower had come late to the GOP tent, and he might have been perceived as squishy on the anti-Communist front, since he had just fought a war in alliance with the Soviet Union.
So he picked a 39-year-old red-baiting freshman senator
from California, Richard M. Nixon. It developed that Nixon
had something that looked like a slush fund. Nixon had to
buy TV time to defend himself, where he made the speech
about his wife's respectable Republican cloth coat
and their little dog Checkers.
The literati may have sneered, but it was a big hit in what came to be known as Middle America, and Ike was stuck with Nixon.
In 1968 Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination. Nixon could have picked one of his tested rivals, like Michigan Gov. George Romney or New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, for vice-president. Instead he selected the obscure first-term governor of Maryland, Spiro Agnew, whose strident criticism of Nixon's critics soon elevated him to folk-hero status in certain circles.
Nixon wanted to replace Agnew with former Texas Gov. John Connally in 1972, but Agnew was so popular with the red-meat faction that he stayed on the ticket, and stayed in office until he was forced to resign on account of bribery charges.
Then there was Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, who was by no
means a national figure before he was anointed by George H.
W. Bush in 1988. Quayle said silly things, among them gems
like I love California. I practically grew up in
Phoenix,
and For NASA, space is still a high
priority.
Some Bush advisers wanted Quayle off the ticket in 1992,
but by then he had become so popular in the correct
spelling is an elitist assault on our American values
segment of the GOP that Bush the Elder felt compelled to
keep him.
Eisenhower won twice with Nixon. Nixon won twice with Agnew. Bush the Elder won once with Quayle -- five out of six, in other words.
So in selecting Sarah Palin of Alaska, John McCain wasn't doing anything bold or radical; he was following a GOP tradition.
The more she is criticized and mocked, the more the red-meat faction will adore her. It will make their case that only the snobs of the chattering class could possibly question the fitness of the hard-charging reformer who is governor of America's largest state and commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard.
McCain knows how this game is played, after all, and Pulin fits well into the winning pattern of Republican vice-presidential candidates. The more she is criticized, the more the base loves her -- and the more he's stuck with her.
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