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Surprising Choice: Conservative Palin likes to fight the establishment
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Sen. John McCain introduces Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential choice at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. She is the first Repulican woman on a presidential ticket.
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Published: August 30, 2008
DAYTON, Ohio
Republican Sen. John McCain introduced first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential choice yesterday, a stunning selection of a little-known conservative newcomer who relishes fighting the establishment.
"She's exactly who I need. She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of ‘Me first and country second,'" McCain said as the two stood together for the first time at a boisterous rally in Ohio just days before the opening of the party's national convention.
Palin, the first Republican woman on a presidential ticket, promised: "I'm going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background in every political party, or no party at all."
"Politics isn't just a game of competing interests and clashing parties," added Palin, 44, who has built her career in large measure by challenging fellow Republicans.
In the increasingly intense presidential campaign, McCain made his selection six days after his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, named Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as his running mate.
The contrast between the two announcements was remarkable -- Obama, 47, picked a 65-year-old running mate with long experience in government and a man whom he said was qualified to be president. The timing of McCain's selection appeared intended to limit any political gain Obama derives from his own convention, which ended Thursday night with his nominating acceptance speech before about 84,000 people at Invesco Field in Colorado.
Public-opinion polls show a close race between Obama and McCain, and with scarcely two months remaining until the election, neither contender can allow the other to jump out to a big post-convention lead.
On his 72nd birthday, McCain chose Palin, a woman younger than two of McCain's seven children and a person who until recently was the mayor of small-town Wasilla, Alaska, and has been governor less than two years. He settled on Palin six months after first meeting her and after only one phone call between them last Sunday and a single face-to-face meeting Thursday, according to a timeline provided by his campaign.
The Obama campaign immediately questioned whether she would be prepared to step in and be president if necessary.
"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign-policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Obama, said in a written statement. A statement put out on Obama's plane merely welcomed her to the campaign.
President Bush complimented McCain for "an exciting decision."
"Gov. Palin is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government," Bush's statement said. "By selecting a working mother with a track record of getting things done, Sen. McCain has once again demonstrated his commitment to reforming Washington."
Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, who came so close to being the first major-party woman presidential candidate, said in a statement: "We should all be proud of Gov. Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Sen. McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Gov. Palin will add an important new voice to the debate."
"It's an absolutely brilliant choice," said Mathew Staver, the dean of Liberty University School of Law. "This will absolutely energize McCain's campaign and energize conservatives."
Palin's name had not been on the short list of people heavily reported on by the news media in recent days, and McCain's decision was a well-kept secret until just a couple hours before yesterday's rally.
McCain's campaign said that Palin and a top aide met with senior McCain advisers in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Wednesday night. The next morning, the campaign said, McCain formally invited Palin to join the ticket on the deck of McCain's home near Sedona, Ariz. Later Thursday, she flew to Middletown, Ohio, with staff to await yesterday's rally in Dayton.
Describing the process that led to her selection, Palin told reporters she had gotten word Thursday that she was McCain's choice and had met privately with him that day to discuss it. She spoke briefly as the two running mates surprised shoppers at the Buckeye Corner in Columbus, Ohio, where they bought Ohio State University sports memorabilia. McCain and Palin started a bus tour across Ohio and to Pittsburgh, where they will have a campaign rally today. Ohio and Pennsylvania are two states that figure prominently in who wins the election this fall.
Asked why McCain chose Palin, his campaign manager Rick Davis said, "Part of it is personal fit."
"He sees Sarah, Gov. Palin, as the future of the party," he said. "These are people he would like to elevate in that regard. Reformers."
Sharyl Odenweller, a retired teacher from Delphos, Ohio, who was visiting the memorabilia store, said she was pleased that McCain had chosen a woman and someone "very pro life." But, Odenweller said, "I'd like to know more about her experience. If something happened to him, would she be qualified to step into the presidency?"
McCain passed over more prominent contenders such as former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, and others such as former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, whose support for abortion rights might have led to unrest at the convention that will start Monday in St. Paul, Minn.
A self-styled hockey mom and political reformer, Palin became governor after defeating a state chief executive of her own party in a primary.
She has a long history of run-ins with the Alaska Republican Party hierarchy, giving her genuine maverick status and reformer credentials that could complement McCain's image.
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