McCain & McGovern: Why Palin (Probably) Won’t Be Dumped

By
Glenn W. Smith
– September 2, 2008Posted in: Politics

George McGovern sat next to me, each of us signing our new books for patrons of a Cambridge bookstore near Harvard. His line of earnest fans was a lot longer than mine. This was the second day of the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston. I was thrilled to be sharing the event with McGovern.

We’d exchanged a few words, pleasantries really. I told him he’d won the very first vote I cast for president of the United States. About halfway through the book signing, he suddenly turned sideways in his seat, faced me and said: “If Eagleton had just told us, we could have dealt with it.”

I was startled at McGovern’s sudden intensity. He really wanted me to know this. We hadn’t talked about Thomas Eagleton, the running mate dropped by McGovern after revelations about his psychiatric care. We really hadn’t talked about anything of substance, although McGovern had made up some nice things about me as he tried to get his fans to move over and stand in my line. He’s a very kind man.

“Yes, I know you could have dealt with it,” was my feeble response.

My point here is that McGovern, a decorated war hero and experienced political leader, was still haunted — 36 years later — by the Eagleton affair. The botched vetting of his first crucial public decision was a ghost that would not leave.

You can bet that today, John McCain, his campaign team and Republican leaders are haunted by the same Ghost of Election Future that has stalked George McGovern’s noble past.

I don’t want to besmirch McGovern by making the Eagleton affair look like an exact equaivalent of McCain’s Palin problem. The circumstances are very different. Eagleton was a U.S. Senator who had held high-profile public office for 12 years. He was, we might say, from the very middle of “the lower 48,” Missouri. He was no unknown political novice.

If anything, McCain will probably pay an even higher price (in terms of earned blame; he’ll lose just like McGovern) for his mistake than McGovern did. But I doubt they will dump her, although there remains the possibility of new facts that make her nomination impossible. Still, McCain and his advisers know that they are probably stuck with Sarah Palin. To jettison her as McCain’s running mate would mean the admission of profound and consequential errors of judgment. McCain’s candidacy would be doomed.

It’s not hard to imagine McCain out on the book-tour trail in 2009, turning to another author suddenly and saying, unprovoked, “If Palin had just told us about …” Well, he’ll have to pick what to blame. Her membership in a fringe, separatist party that advocates Alaskan secession? Possible abuse of office charges in connection with a feud with a former in-law? Her lie about the “bridge to nowhere (she supported it, and bragged that she didn’t)? Her ties to the law firm involved in the Ted Stevens ethics controversy?

What’s sad is that Sarah Palin doesn’t deserve this. She’s just a goofy governor of Alaska. I think she’s misguided on many issues. She is out of step with America’s needs. But no one deserves to become the kind of embarrassed historical footnote McCain is turning her into.

McCain’s the real villain here. He tied poor Sarah to the railroad tracks of the 2008 presidential campaign, holding her hostage for a few odd votes here and there. She’s going to get run over. McCain’s suffering will be slower, but just as deadly.

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About Glenn W. Smith

Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”

Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.

In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.

As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.

Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.

Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.

As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”