| I remember back in 2005 when Jon Tester was just thinking about entering the race for U.S. Senate and in the early days of the campaign, I had conversations with other early supporters about the political case for backing Tester.
Compared to John Morrison, Tester looked risky for a few reasons. He had never run statewide. He wasn't raising enough money. He clearly did not share Morrison's ambitious streak (Tester is a fighter, but not in the same ego-centric way).
In fact, many of us backing Tester would acknowledge (at least privately) that there was a decent chance that Morrison would run stronger in the general election than Tester would.
But from a political perspective, Tester was still the better nominee.
Huh?
The reason is that looking at Morrison's profile, we just didn't think he'd get to 51% ever. A city lawyer running against a farm radio announcer? The third generation politician running against the conservative populist?
Money, ambition, and work ethic only go so far in politics. The candidate's profile and tone make a huge difference -- as they should.
So while Jon Tester had maybe a 30-40% chance of getting a majority of the vote, we also thought there was a pretty healthy chance he'd get 40%.
Why am I talking about the '06 race? Because John McCain just made a similar gamble.
Adding Sarah Palin to the ticket has given McCain a chance to win in a race where he had little chance, but it has also opened up a new possibility for an amazingly embarrassing Obama landslide. And, frankly, it would be a landslide that McCain would deserve to lose.
The big difference between the Tester gamble and the Palin gamble is that the Tester gamble wasn't reaching for a less capable leader for political reasons (it was, I think, the precise opposite -- making a smart political gamble on the more capable leader). The Palin gamble isn't just rolling the dice for the Republican ticket. It's rolling the dice for the entire country.
Imagine that McCain plays his odds and comes up sevens (McCain is a craps fan), but something terrible befalls him between Election Day and the Inauguration. Is Sarah Palin at all prepared to lead?
Her choice -- from the vantage of whether she is prepared to lead the country -- is such a terrible joke that it should remove John McCain from consideration. His judgment is simply abysmal.
It's acceptable to play games and take risks in politics. But there are risks that just aren't acceptable in the governance of the most powerful country in the world. John McCain just took one of those risks. |
