Palintology: Can John McCain’s Running Mate Get the Hillary Votes?

Can Palin Get the Hillary Votes?

Last Friday, the media were surprised when John McCain chose Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. I, too, was surprised, but as someone who grew up in Alaska and still has family there, I am not dismissive of Palin. She is both talented and tough–a genuine conservative populist.

I met Sarah Palin in 2006 when she was a gubernatorial candidate in Alaska. She was opposing Governor Frank Murkowski in a bid to get on the GOP ticket. I was working as a waitress at the convention center where she was speaking. I immediately noticed how friendly and kind Palin was to the convention staff. She said hello to the workers in the same manner she greeted those who came to hear her speak. Her friendliness toward us was not politically motivated. Most of the staff was European and working in Alaska for only the summer. She knew they could not vote. I do not remember what Ms. Palin said in her speech that day. What has stayed with me, however, is the complete contrast in her behavior with that of Frank Murkowski. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner columnist Dermot Cole said it best when he wrote, “Sarah Palin’s chief qualification for being elected governor of Alaska was that she was not Frank Murkowski.”

Governor Palin currently has an 80 percent approval rating in Alaska. Before serving twenty months as governor, Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside of Anchorage where she once won the title of “Miss Wasilla.” She held various positions in the Alaskan government–most notably ethics commissioner for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She was educated as a journalist at the University of Idaho, and she has also worked in her family’s commercial fishing business. Palin adds an appealing face and life story to the Republican ticket. She does not come from a political family, or even a wealthy one. She has described herself as just a “hockey mom,” but she is much more than a typical mom. Her oldest son is about to be deployed to Iraq as a member of the Army, and her youngest child Trig has Down syndrome. Palin has been praised for her decision not to have an abortion in spite of knowing about Trig’s Down syndrome in advance. The baby boy Palin introduced in Dayton has been claimed by anti-abortion groups across the country as a symbol of her values and of what she will bring to office.

Alaska’s U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said, “Governor Palin has risen to every challenge she’s faced,” and that may be true to date. But whether she is up to being a vice president–or stepping in as president–for the 72-year-old John McCain is a different question. It is hard to find fault with a governor who is giving Alaskans extra money to pay for rising fuel and energy costs, but this gesture is not something that can be translated for a larger population. Palin has proved herself popular in Alaska, and it is likely that if she wants to stay in office she will be reelected. But running an insular state with a small population is different from being vice president of a nation that will always be a large player in international affairs.

“It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America,” Palin said at the GOP rally in Dayton, Ohio, when her selection as vice president was announced. “But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.” Whether women, particularly Hillary Clinton supporters, will see things Palin’s way is questionable. From gun control to abortion, Palin has taken positions that are the very opposite of Clinton’s. But Republicans are betting that she will gain the votes of Clinton supporters because she too is a woman and the issues of her daughter’s pregnancy, the state trooper controversy, and her rumored relationship to an Alaskan secessionist party do not have staying power.

That’s a lot to ask for someone on the verge of being for women what Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was for African Americans when he was nominated by George H.W. Bush.

Katie Rose Watson is pursuing an M.Phil in comparative literature at Trinity College, Dublin. Her writing has appeared in USA Today. Photo: Palin talks to an Alaska native serving at Camp Buehring in Kuwait (Christopher Grammer / U.S. Army / Wikimedia Commons)