EDITORIAL: Palin is a Bold, Risky Pick

The Dallas Morning News

Aug. 30--You have to hand it to John McCain: That was one bold choice. But was it a good one?

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the most risky Republican pick for vice president since George H.W. Bush tapped Dan Quayle as his No. 2. Ms. Palin, 44, has been governor for only two years. The office she held before that one was mayor of a town about the size of Midlothian.

This is the person Mr. McCain, 72, would install a heartbeat away from the presidency. The Palin pick means the Republicans have ceded the high ground on the experience issue.

On the other hand, Ms. Palin is a working-class hockey mom who made her reputation as a slayer of Alaska's corrupt GOP establishment. She's an anti-abortion feminist and an evangelical who vetoed a law denying state benefits to same-sex partners. And -- hello! -- she's a woman.

Ms. Palin, an outsider's outsider, makes a stark contrast with the others in this race: three male senators from inside the Beltway. Mr. McCain's choice may have grabbed ground from Mr. Obama on the change issue (and put at least some Hillary Clinton voters into play).

If Ms. Palin rouses the Republican base, Mr. McCain will have done something many doubted was possible: energized and unified his dispirited party. Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty couldn't have done that. But how will Ms. Palin play with independents? And how will she fare in the coming debate against the incomparably more experienced Joe Biden?

On that point, Republicans must have breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Ms. Palin walked onto the national stage sounding strong and looking confident. Come what may this fall, that was no Quaylian deer-in-headlights debut.

Alluding to the high stakes in her selection, Ms. Palin said yesterday, "A ship in harbor is safe -- but that's not why the ship is built." The maverick John McCain has chosen a "damn the torpedoes" gambit. It's going to be an interesting 10 weeks.

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