Interesting post this morning on The Next Right. Matt Moon reminds us that most VP picks have historically played the role of hatchetman; to go after the opposition ruthlessly without directly putting the presidential nominee in that role. Sarah Palin wasn’t selected for that role, though - an important distinction from past nominees.
The point that I haven’t been able to put my finger on, but Moon nails is that McCain picked Palin from a position of strength while Obama picked Biden from a position of weakness.
After going through a well-publicized internal struggle over picking somebody like himself versus picking somebody that fills in his weaknesses, Obama went for the latter and decided that he needed a hatchetman more than anything else. McCain decided to pick a validator, someone who can challenge the “3rd term of Bush” attack head on.
Many good points - read it all.
