You Ask, I Respond

In the continued interest of engaging my readers, I’ll address Jonalan’s point about my post relating Sarah Palin to John Kerry.

Yes, it’s very similar to Obama’s choice of Biden as his VP. Both candidates have chosen VPs who shore up some of their weaknesses.

Hmmmmm…Kind of sounds like they’ve both done what used to be done when picking a VP.

Right, there’s no denying that VP picks are meant to address a perceived weakness, and this definitely applies to the Biden pick. Concerns about Obama’s experience and foreign policy credentials led him to choose an experienced foreign policy expert. By contrast however, John McCain — and more broadly, the Republicans — have the perception of staid and stubborn opposition to change, and especially so on social issues. But rather than reconsider unpopular positions, they instead selected a woman for VP to create the illusion of believing in policy change, when in fact, their candidate’s beliefes echo the same unpopular positions that tarnished the Republican brand in the first place.

John Kerry’s nomination was similar. Rather than engage Republicans on their flawed strategy for national security, Democrats instead opted to nominate a war hero, hoping that this image would be enough to neutralize the issue, much in the same way that Republicans hope the image of a female running mate will make their ideas seem more in step with public opinion, even if their policies are not.

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