Mark Gregory Turansky

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McCain announced his Vice-Presidential candidate on Friday.  By choosing Sarah Palin, I think Team McCain made an excellent move that diverted media attention from Obama’s exceptionally strong speech Thursday night.  Had he choosen a boring white male candidate, the media would probably still be covering Obama’s speech.  Instead, he shook it up with an unexpected choice, and all the pundits and journalists and bloggers immediately started talking about it.  Well done.

Except there are a couple of problems with his choice.

First, it opens up McCain’s age and health as campaign issues.

McCain’s team successfully blocked any critique of his age during the primary season.  Other candidates (Democrats and Republicans) could only hint about it and the attempts were always successfully paried by McCain’s team.  By choosing Palin, McCain instantly made his age and health campaign issues because his Number Two may very well be president.

Why?

Because John McCain is 72 years old, which would make him the oldest president ever, should he be elected.  Average male life expectancy is 73-74 years.  He’s had 4 bouts with cancer (melanomas).  Suddenly, his age and health matter because of his choice of NumberTwo.

Second, McCain instantly neutered his most powerful argument of the election:  experience matters and Obama doesn’t have it.  Obama chose Joe Biden for his vast foreign policy experience, an area where Obama is weak. By choosing someone less experienced than Obama, McCain removed both the hammer and anvil that I thought he’d strike for the entire campaign in a Karl Rove kind of way.  I think it might have worked, too.  Not now.

This is the GOP ticket for 2008:

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Maybe!

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