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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

A War-Time Vice-President?

By The Daily Dish
Aug 29 2008, 11:15 AM ET

An Ambers reader writes:

I thought you might like to know that under the heading of "Sarah Palin on Foreign Policy" at the On The Issues site for her, this is what's listed:

"No issue stance yet recorded by OnTheIssues.org."

The more I think about it, the more staggered I am by the pick. It's totally about electioneering (misguidedly, I'd hazard, but I don't know enough about her to know yet) and fundamentally unserious about governing.

The first criterion for a veep - and I'm simply repeating a truism here - is that they are ready to take over at a moment's notice. That's especially true when you have a candidate as old as McCain. That's more than especially true when we are at war, in an era of astonishingly difficult challenges, when the next president could be grappling with war in the Middle East or a catastrophic terror attack at home. Under those circumstances, we could have a former Miss Alaska with two terms years under her belt as governor. Now compare McCain's pick with Obama's: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe.

One pick is by a man of judgment; the other is by a man of vanity.

She may be a fine person, but she's my age, she has zero Washington experience, and no foreign policy expertise whatsoever.

McCain has just told us how seriously he takes the war we are in. Not seriously at all.



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