Spark wrote:
Now I'm hearing that the reason is actually completely different: apparently, it's to reassure the hard-right Republican base (but who else were they going to vote for anyway?) as well as give McCain freedom to move his own stance towards the middle where he feels more comfortable.
Is this right?
Yes you are correct. It was and has been a genius move. McCain is not as right wing as Palin. The anti-abortion, pro-life, pro-guns mother is the perfect spokeswoman for the hard right. McCain on the other hand needs to take the shine away from Obama. To do this it's much easier for him to move towards the centre and catch swinging and uncommitted voters. That way McCain can hopefully take the middle ground, Palin covers the extreme right and the Republicans should have enough to combat the charismatic Obama change campaign.
The left definitely want Obama, the right certainly want Palin, McCain needs to gain the middle ground that will decide the upcoming election.
However, it was also a great move, because Biden was specifically chosen as, you could call it, attack dog. He was selected as VP candidate to strongly criticise McCain and his VP nomination, for the simple and obvious reason Biden has the experience, has been in politics for a hell of a long time and knew the field really well. The problem now is that he can't attack Palin as strongly as he would like however, because that would come off as attacking the vulnerable new girl on the block, who let's be honest it's good to see a female having a go in politics. Rather than criticising her character, he has to now stick to policy only. Which has been one of the least publicized Palin traits. You know everything about her background, family life, it's her policy goals that have taken a backseat by the media.
The problem that the Republicans do face, is that Palin is not going to woo any of the Hilary supporters as you suggested. She will and has, at first. However, once her stance on issues such as abortion, drugs, gun laws are made more clear and public, voters are going to find that she is vastly different from what Senator Hilary was offering.
The Democrats are caught in the awkward position of not being able to attack Palins character, as that would receive calls of sexism, so they have to catch her out on policy issues. The Republicans know this so have to be very careful in what position she has to adopt, otherwise the waiting Biden will hit back with his own experience and skills. That's why you'll find Palin has been very careful during her speeches and press conferences, she'll push more towards her personal family values, her stance on abortion, with her daughter as an example of her pro life position, taken again from her own life experiences - it's the wide ranging issues of health care and taxes that McCain is more suited towards.
McCain is to cover the middle ground, Palin the right wing, who aren't really concerned about the health care and taxes policy as you would think because Republicans main supporter base believe a Democrat running these departments goes so strongly against what they believe.
At the moment we're still waiting for Biden to have a real dig against Palin. He's waiting for her to slip up on policy. Obama made the mistake of hitting her too early, she got a lot of sympathy from it. And also media attention. Obama and the Democrats new plan is to focus on McCain as best as possible, try to wrestle the undecided voters towards them, and take the attention away from Palin. Obama was on the cover of Time magazine, he enjoyed a huge wave of public exposure in the lead up to the Democrat selections against Hilary. Now Palin is riding that popularity. It's one of the the reasons Biden has been the lesser star out of the four running for office.
So the real campaign hasn't started yet. Both sides are weighing each other up. Once the VP debates kick in you'll see what both sides strengths and weaknesses really are.
That's my take on the whole thing anyway.
