A quick schmooze on convention speeches. Why is everyone so amazed when one of these politicians gives a good speech at a convention? They are politicians! Specifically, they are politicians reading from a teleprompter. They would not be elected political figures if they were not good at public speaking. The shock should come if they don’t “hit it out of the park.” Here’s another question…why is there never any credit given to the speech writers? These speeches didn’t write themselves. Isn’t it really the speech writers who “hit it out of the park” or not? Wouldn’t it be more accurate if after a John McCain or Barack Obama speech the analysts say “(insert speech writers name here) really hit it out of the park tonight?”

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Tags: Barack Obama, convention, John McCain, politicians

As I’m sure you already know, Senator John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his choice for VP. Palin is young, female, pro gun and anti-abortion.

The Schmooze: All I can say is that sometimes smart people make dumb decisions. I think this choice is terrible for three main reasons:

1. How do you follow up months upon months of hammering Barack Obama and his lack of experience and his not being ready to be commander and chief by picking someone who has less experience than he does? Regardless of which candidate you support, the discussion about experience is a valid one. Whereas the Obama campaign’s central focus in attacking McCain has been his judgment, McCain’s main line of attack has been about Obama’s lack of experience. It is hard to make the case that selecting a 44 year old 1st term governor from Alaska (no offense to Alaska) is a good pick when it immediately undercuts your strongest argument against your opponent. Regardless of how you feel about Obama, most people are in agreement that Joe Biden is as qualified as any VP candidate ever to step in and take over should the need arise. John McCain is 72 years old and has had 4 bouts with cancer. The qualifications of his #2, the person who would be 1 heartbeat away from being President, are crucial to voters feeling comfortable with the ticket. How can anyone feel comfortable with this pick when a majority of Republicans don’t even know who she is?

2. Palin does not sure up any of McCain’s weaknesses…specifically his shortcomings on the economy. Even if Obama’s selection of Biden as his VP choice gave credibility to the argument that he lacked foreign policy experience, it also demonstrated his good judgment and willingness to acknowledge that he needed help. In this sense Mitt Romney would have been the much better choice. One of the main issues the election will turn on is the economy. By virtue of being the Republican candidate, not to mention his own admission that he doesn’t understand economics, McCain is already facing an uphill battle on this crucial issue. Adding Mitt Romney, a successful businessman who has run large events such as the Olympics as well as a large state (again…no offense to Alaska), would have been the smart pick here.

3. I would think this pick is an insult to women. Clearly the motivation here is to steal a big share of those 18 million votes Hillary Clinton got. Now I’m not a woman, but I have to believe that those women who strongly supported Hillary Clinton did so because she was a qualified woman who shared their same beliefs on the issues. They weren’t supporting her just because she was a woman. Picking a woman who is pro-gun and pro-life and assuming that those women who supported Hillary will now support the McCain/Palin ticket merely because she is a women is beyond risky and nearly insulting (women, please chime in here).

With all this being said, you have to give McCain credit for defying conventional wisdom and logic. Ultimately I believe it will be to his detriment…but at least it was out of left field and keeps things very interesting. I think if Obama is smart…he will appoint some women (Clinton, Claire McCaskill, even Caroline Kennedy) to some high level cabinet positions and make those appointments public before the election.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Commander and Chief, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, President, Sarah Palin, Vice President, VP