In Hindsight, Hillary Looks Good as a Running Mate

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September 12, 2008

By Marianne Means

Sen. Hillary Clinton must be as bemused as her many supporters are (that's a polite word) by the excitement Gov. Sarah Palin has brought to a dull Republican ticket. It might even help the GOP win! Horrors! Why didn't Sen. Barack Obama think of this? Why didn't he summon the courage to add Clinton to his own Democratic ticket?

No real understandable reasons, or excuses, have been forthcoming. Except, of course, he was running so strongly against the old guy in white hair that he thought he didn't need any help.

"Not a good fit" was about the closest an Obama mouthpiece came to an explanation. Meaning, one assumes, that he couldn't bear a competing shining star. McCain, of course, has no such worries. He is who he is, and Palin cannot challenge that. But she is proving so popular, if the raft of recent polls are sustained, that she is becoming a big political figure in her own right. At the moment, she is still a political stunt, but a successful one. In their first ad featuring Palin, the GOP shows the pair together and an announcer proclaims, "They'll make history," a not-so-subtle message that she could be the first female vice president.

She is the anti-Clinton, opposed to every domestic and social policy for which Clinton has worked for decades, yet she is pulling away hordes of white female voters who refused to settle for Obama after he dumped Hillary.

Gender may have an initial appeal only, but it could last if Palin proves to be clever and softens her hard-line anti-abortion, anti-stem cell research, anti-gay rights, anti-everything modern positions of the past. She's running for the second spot, not the top one. We'll see. The oddest thing about Palin's candidacy is that motherhood has suddenly moved into a top priority for political leadership. This is brand new, and a reflection of the fact her religious-right supporters want to promote her "family values," which differ from the standards of the past.

Sexual abstinence before marriage, for instance, has been dropped from the list of moral imperatives for the feminine ideal, given unmarried teen Bristol's inconvenient pregnancy.

But the notion that motherhood figures as a qualification to be commander in chief is too much too swallow. There are mothers who simply give birth and there are mothers who really make a difference over the decades in their children's lives, and that of the country. In either case, a mother • or father • must have talents and strengths beyond his or her own family. It was pleasant to see Palin and her family on display. Seven-year-old Piper is especially cute. But what did it mean to us? The voters need specific things, such as health care, regulatory and energy reform and a revitalization of privacy rights, particularly those of women.

Many or most of us have cute children, or grandchildren, at home or nearby. I could parade my own. That makes us empathize with Palin but doesn't make us qualified to run the country. Nor should it make us vote for her, on those grounds alone. The polls are unambiguous about the boost Palin gave to the GOP ticket, particularly among white women who never cottoned to Obama's cool, male attitude of superiority.

The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll showed that among registered voters McCain leads Obama by 4 points, 50 percent to 46 percent. Before the GOP convention, riding on his own convention bounce, Obama led by 7 points.

Significantly, according to the poll, more voters call themselves Republicans than before • 47 percent say they are Republicans or lean that way, 48 percent say they are Democrats or lean that way. Republicans have not been within a single point of Democrats in party identification since February 2005, after Bush's second inauguration. None of this may last. But it's not small potatoes either. Republicans are suddenly energized and hopeful, even though a dismal Bush administration and sagging economy have left them few reasons to feel that way. And Obama, who opted not to take pubic financing as McCain did, is struggling to raise the cash he needs through massive, and increasingly distracting fund-raising efforts. A Washington Post-ABC News poll reports similar reactions. Among all voters who supported Clinton, nearly a quarter say they plan to support McCain in November, although Obama has won over 78 per cent of women who were previously for Hillary.

It comes down to the self-declared independents, who now for the first time break narrowly for McCain. The score is 50 percent for McCain to 43 for Obama, not such a big margin but a revolution in the speed-dial political campaigns of today.

Wow! Clearly, Obama has been making major mistakes, the first of which was to reject Hillary. The over-the-top "I'm the Messiah" stuff and the grandiose backdrops haven't sold well either, except with impressionable liberal college kids.

The basic Obama pitch that he could bring the country together simply by the strength of his oratory is in tatters.The McCain campaign has been doing much better, with less to work with. In fact, it has been a miracle of repositioning and risk-taking and smiles, smiles, smiles. And, it is fair to add, a lot of exaggerations, misleading comments and outright fibs.

Clever quips have helped, too. In spite of everything, McCain's hard not to like. It is really the McCain personality, above all, that could rescue a campaign that shouldn't win in a political climate so dire. With the help of an unusual, unexpected and untested woman at his side, of course.

Marianne Means can be e-mailed at means@hearstdc.com.
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