The Palin pick

Talking to those Democrats who didn’t get the first flight out of Denver one picks up two conflicting emotions about the Palin pick: relief and fear. They are all happy that McCain has so neutered his attack on Obama’s experience; yes Obama was a state senator just four years ago but the person that John McCain—a 72 year old cancer survivor—has chosen to put a heart beat away from the presidency was the Mayor of a small Alaskan town then. But there is also real concern that John McCain might have finally found a domestic message; that he and Palin will run as reformers who are prepared to fight a broken system. Both McCain and Palin have—unlike the Democratic ticket—a record of taking on the special interests who exercise such a perfidious influence on American political life. There is a potent contrast between Palin who took on the corrupt Alaskan political establishment and Obama who worked with the Chicago machine when it suited him.