McCain sells out with Palin as VP choice

By Brad Speers

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain received an endorsement last week from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a former supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Rothschild is married to one of the world's most powerful men, Sir Evelyn Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Lady Rothschild told The Wall Street Journal that she considers Sen. Obama to be an elitist. I assume she made that decision while flying between New York and London on her private jet. Her comments, however, are related to a common theme arising from McCain's campaign -- a theme of distortion and pandering.

Recently, the Republican candidate gave America's economy a clean bill of health, which is pure fiction. When questioned about his comment, he responded by saying that he gave the American worker a clean bill of health -- which might be true if the American worker had a job to pay for health insurance.

Regardless of the American worker's health, America's banks have been losing billions of dollars. Today, there are only two remaining American investment banks that are functioning independently: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

In the shadow of a collapsing economy and with the grace of President Hoover, McCain continues to tell the American people that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.

McCain has now brought this presidential election to a historic tie with the introduction of America's favorite hockey mom, Gov. Sarah Palin, as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Americans have apparently forgotten about the last eight years of our government being controlled by the Republican party.

Indeed, despite an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent and the failure of our banking system, airline and automotive industries, coupled with approximately $9.7 trillion in federal debt and a trade deficit, many Americans still believe in the Republicans' presidential ticket. With only forty days left until Americans head to the polls, now is the time for the voters of this country to say no to irresponsible government.

The desperation of the McCain campaign was kicked off by the pick of Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Why not strengthen McCain's support by appealing to the far right? The conservative grassroots movement, which aided President George Bush in his victories over Al Gore and John Kerry, was not supporting McCain two months ago. With the pick of Palin, the movement was reenergized.

Even with a popular choice of a vice presidential candidate like Palin, McCain will run into some major dilemmas as the election draws near.

The main problem? McCain and Palin disagree on important issues like offshore drilling. McCain also does not support teaching creationism in pubic schools while Palin does. Palin believes God is warming our planet, not human activity. In fact, both Bush and McCain disagree with Palin's views on global warming.

Is Palin a fiscal conservative? McCain has never sought earmarks for Arizona. Palin asked for $254,000,000 in one year for a state that has a population of 680,000. Although the lucky residents of Alaska receive a substantial yearly dividend check from the state's vast oil wealth -- this year the amount was $3,269 -- Palin still decided to seek taxpayer help to research halibut harvesting. It is obvious that McCain sold his maverick appeal on a gamble that Palin would energize the religious right who otherwise despise him.

That gamble might pay off. However, will McCain be able to bring the Republicans to the political center? Most likely not. Palin is vastly more popular than he is, and it is the far-right that has tied the race for McCain.

The fact still remains that McCain is a progressive Republican. He stresses certain classical-conservative beliefs and has never appealed to the religious right until now.

With the loss of his maverick appeal, true independents need to rethink their draw to the McCain- Palin ticket. As liberal as Obama is, he is still the more centered choice in this election.

William Kristol, a former key architect for the Bush administration's Iraq strategy and now a neo-conservative writer, predicted on his Fox News show in June that McCain would pick Palin as his running mate. When McCain finally announced his VP choice, it became clear that he had sold out to the far right.

Brad Speers is a senior political science major.