GOP Veteran on Palin Pick: “Reckless”

Nice piece by John Dickerson in Slate. It’s clear that the Palin pick has taken experience off the table for the most part. The question now is, does it take “risky” off the table as well? The clear GOP tactic has been to paint McCain as the safe pick. The old white dude who has been around a long time and you feel like you know well. Obama was the guy you didn’t know well and was thus painted as risky. The Palin pick may be changing that dynamic as we speak:

Each new fact we learn about Sarah Palin—her reversal on the bridge to nowhere, her disagreements with McCain on issues from windfall profits to global warming, emerging facts about troopergate—contribute to the feeling that this whole Palin thing is being made up as we go along. It may be fun to read about, and it sure is fun to cover, but it also supports the judgment of the Palin pick that I first heard from a Republican veteran shortly after the announcement: “Reckless.”

Reckless. Judgement. Risk. These are the things that we are going to have to balance as an electorate in order to decide who becomes President. The smears don’t appear to have worked that well against Obama in their ability to gin up risk. It’s too early to tell if the Palin pick will be seen as a risky pick by most voters, but if GOP operatives are saying it there probably is something to it.

The way I see it all the details that are being flushed out in the wake of Sarah Palin landing on the McCain ticket matter little. What matters most is the entirety of them put together and the judgment of John McCain to make an important Presidential decision. Right now it appears his judgment is in question to anyone but the most partisan observer.