Convention disrupted by Gustav and Palin ‘insult’ storm

Mindful of the damage inflicted on the Bush administration three years ago because of its slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina, Team McCain has scaled down the Republican party convention in St Paul, Minnesota, at least until the gravity of Hurricane Gustav, due to hit the Gulf Coast on Monday, is known.

On a pre-convention tour of emergency preparations in Mississippi, John McCain said it would not be appropriate to hold a political celebration while hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing their homes and that the convention should now be a "call to action". President Bush's address today has been cancelled and at least two high-profile Republicans have had to drop out - Bobby Jindal, Louisiana state governor, who declared a state of emergency as Gustav approached New Orleans, and Rick Perry, governor of Texas, another state preparing for the worst.

Right behind the very real Hurricane Gustav comes another possibly disruptive force, Storm Sarah. The political fall-out from McCain's surprise announcement on Friday that his vice-presidential candidate would be the little-known governor of Alaska and former beauty queen, Sarah Palin, is increasing as political pundits and Republican party members continue to debate whether McCain's choice was bizarre or brilliant.

Bizarre because by choosing a 44-year-old woman with so inconsequential a track record (she was elected in December 2006, following two terms as mayor of Wasilla, an Anchorage suburb of 8,000 or so citizens), McCain has invited upon his own party the very charge of inexperience he has enjoyed leveling at Barack Obama. Brilliant, because McCain appeared - at first, anyway - to have come up with a far more radical choice of VP than Obama did when he picked Joe Biden.

But following the initial excitement generated by the announcement, especially on the right wing of the Republican party, many commentators are reaching the same conclusion - that the choice was short-termist and ill-judged. The idea that a socially conservative woman like Palin - who is not only an anti-abortionist, but a creationist to boot - would offer some sort of alternative to disappointed Hillary Clinton supporters is, many say, an insult to intelligent women.

The Guardian reports today that one of Palin's first campaign speeches - near Pittsburgh on Saturday - showed her vulnerability. Some of the audience left as she was speaking and there was booing when, in an appeal to Democratic voters to switch to McCain, she mentioned Hillary Clinton.

Madeleine M Kunin, writing on the Huffington Post, asks: "How could Democratic women, who are pro choice, vote for a candidate who is against abortion, even in the case of rape or incest? She believes in no exceptions."

Kunin also questions Palin's political experience. "Alaska is far removed... from the centre of gravity of American politics. A state that gives its citizens a cheque each year from oil revenues is not about to invest in renewable energy and address global warming. Can this recently elected governor of this frontier-mentality state understand the fear that so many Americans have of losing their homes, their jobs, their health care, and their ability to send their children to college?"

Nor did McCain give much thought, argues Kunin, to the fundamental question: is she capable of being President should anything happen to McCain? "Can this person protect and defend the United States in an increasingly dangerous world, not only on the battlefield, but also in the conference room where diplomacy happens?

"It is hard for me to make the leap from her ice float in Alaska to the international arena... It's a slight to women to expect us to vote for any woman, no matter what she stands for, and whether or not she can do the job."

Jan Roller, a Clinton delegate at last week's Democratic convention, quoted in the International Herald Tribune, echoed Kunin's comments: "It's an insult. You have to be qualified for the job."

Not all Republicans are impressed, either. Lyda Green, president of the Alaskan state senate, told the Anchorage Daily News that she thought it was a joke when she heard the news. Green argues that Palin was not properly prepared for the state governorship when she won election in December 2006. "How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?"

Andrew Sullivan, writing in the Sunday Times, believes the choice of Palin was another example of McCain's mastery of short-term tactics versus Obama's strength as a long-term strategist. The Palin announcement was "a brilliant, attention-grabbing move" which dominated the news cycle in the wake of Obama's closing speech in Denver. But it was no more than a tactic - "guerrilla-style, clever, nimble, deft".

However, Sullivan argued, "America is at war with lethal enemies, its economy is teetering, its people are unsettled. And McCain gave us a 44-year-old former beauty queen as the person who could be asked to take over the White House in an emergency... Tactically: daring. Strategically: potentially disastrous."

FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 1, 2008