John McCain had a hard act to follow after the thunder of the Democratic National Convention. In the Rockies, Obama scaled the heights of political spectacle, delivering one of the surest and strongest speeches of the campaign year. What could the much more restricted McCain possibly muster in response?
We've now had a few days to dwell on the answer. The choice of Sarah Palin as the presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate breathes new life into a contest that was flagging in the late months of the summer. In selecting Palin as his running mate, McCain anointed a woman he has met only once before; a woman whose anti-choice views are unlikely to win over disgruntled Hillaryites; a woman whose short tenure as the governor of remote Alaska may undermine the edifice of "experience" that surrounds his presidential bid. Yet Palin also adds that element of surprise and adventure altogether absent from the McCain campaign.
We've been chewing over the Palin nomination in the openDemocracy Batcave. Inevitably, some of us take our cool, objective analysis with a pinch of orthodox liberal disgust (see Todd Gitlin in TPMCafe). That Palin - with her beauty pageant past and her creationist and anti-choice agenda - could become America's first female president is galling to liberal feminists who have long struggled for equal rights and dignity. Many female politicians, like Florida Democrat Debbie Schulz, insist that "Palin is inexperienced, unethical, and wrong on all the issues that Americans care about." Palin's pitch to Hillary supporters - "Let's shatter the glass ceiling that Hillary cracked... Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass" - will hoodwink only the most blinkered Hillaryites and do little to diminish the Alaskan's deeply conservative reputation.
If we take a step back, however, Palin could help us measure how ready Americans are for Obama. The Democrat nominee seeks to address the question: "What kind of leadership does America need?" But what kind of leadership are Americans ready for? In her upcoming duel with Joe Biden, Palin will not be able to match the senator's policy savvy or his understanding of international politics. She'll be pitted against Biden's "experience" much in the same way Obama must parry McCain's "experience". Both Obama and Palin are Washington outsiders, but while Obama stakes his claim to leadership with lofty rhetoric and grand political vision, Palin will take a different route. As our deputy editor David Hayes suggested, she won't "step outside the bounds of herself". Will her small-town, down-to-earth charm play more successfully to the sensibilities of American voters?
Her introduction to this election offers a very different and provocative challenge to the finesse of the Obama campaign. Obama promised that change would come to Washington. Could it be Palin's change?