When the time came to make his first significant decision as a candidate, John McCain showed a hasty and seat-of-the-pants style that betrays a potentially disastrous judgment vacuum, and which inextricably links him to George W. Bush.
Continuing his desperate, pathetic, insulting campaign, John McCain announced a Vice Presidential nominee without employing even the most cursory vetting. His campaign received full disclosures from her less than 48 hours before she was announced, and he himself had met with her on a maximum of two cursory occasions.
With this single, desperate and negligent act, John McCain has proven himself unworthy of the Presidency. We have seen the effects of 8 years of a lobbyist-controlled president who shoots from the hip: disastrous war, faltering economy, inflation, job loss, cultural division.
In short, McCain has proven that he has learned the worst lessons at the knee of the master of how to fail as a president.
Whether the Governor of Alaska is qualified for the office is irrelevant. Her qualifications approximately mimic those of George W. Bush: young, charismatic, Governor with extreme to radical right-wing political views and an enduring commitment to the status quo of corporate interests, especially the oil industry. What is critically important is that, in the rush to shore up the base, McCain has provided no valid argument, no strong evidence that she indeed has the qualifications necessary to be president. The fact that she has disappeared and will not interact with the media, perhaps for the entire election season, would indicate that she is decidedly unprepared. If she'd been vetted by more than a stirring base-rousing speech and a pithy bio, perhaps the case would have been made. This is classic deadbeat conservatism, shirking the responsibilities of the faith of the American people.
Despite McCain campaign cries of "sexism" the media is currently engaging in an exhaustive and completely valid background check. This is the background check that the McCain campaign should have performed. McCain, however, was so desperate to shore up the radical right-wing base of the party that he lacked the respect for the American public to do what should have been done.
Besides giving the true heir they'd been seeking to the dead-end 29% who still support the Bush Era, McCain this week also proved two critical points. One, while he may have served as a brave American in the past, he has caved to lobbyists and the right wing - the hero is now simply another politician. Two, he lacks sufficient judgment and respect for the responsibilities of the President of the United States to be entrusted with the office.
McCain must not be allowed to ascend the Presidency. Just as in 2000 we could not have conceived of the ravages of a Bush Administration, the potential damage of yet another reckless president is beyond comprehension, but no less terrifying.
For me, the larger issue here is what we don't know - and may not know before election day - about Palin's philosophy and depth of knowledge on myriad issues. The Republicans' attempt to compare her readiness with Obama's is absurd. Americans have been exposed to an abundance of Obama in unscripted settings over the past 19 months of a grueling campaign. Voters now have just two months to gauge Palin's preparedness for high office.Her speech was terrific, but candidates for national office don't have the luxury of staying on script, even if they try, in this era of bloggers and 24/7 scrutiny. A lot can happen between Scranton and San Francisco. Just ask Barack Obama.