Palin As Vice-President

Late in last night's vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, the latter was asked by moderator Gwen Ifill:

Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

Palin responded

Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.

As this video (at the reference to 10:49 of the site's live blogging) from thinkprogress.org indicates, Chris Matthews, fearing another Dick Cheney. was (appropriately) disturbed about Palin's intent to expand the powers of the vice-presidency. He commented, accurately and as an under-statement, "not too much humility here."

He need not be concerned, however. Sarah Palin cannot have increased powers unless each of two events occurs: 1) John McCain is elected; and 2) President McCain chooses to give Vice-President Palin the increased authority she seeks.

Even if scenario #1 occurs (despite Palin's presence on the ticket), scenario #2 isn't likely. Article 1, Section 3 of the United States Constitution lays out the authority of the Vice-President: "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. " And it's improbable that Mr. McCain has a different view of the role of the vice-president. As this website reminds us, "even John McCain has joked that a Vice President has two main jobs: checking on the health of the President and attending funerals of foreign leaders." Although that regarded speculation that he would be selected as George W. Bush's running mate in 2000, the Arizona senator as recently as April of this year, "joked" that the main function of a vice-president is to check daily on the health of the president.

No, if John McCain wanted a vice-president whose advice he could rely on, he probably would have selected Joe Lieberman. If he wanted a vice-president he could assign important duties to, he probably would have selected Tom Ridge. And if he wanted a vice-president with proven management experience, he probably would have selected Mitt Romney. Instead, he chose as his mate an individual who, in a performance widely hailed as far superior to her recent interviews, declared "it's a toxic mess, really, on Main Street that's affecting Wall Street."

Disturbing Outlook

I don't want to be disingenuous. I don't know whether an Israeli attack upon Iran's nuclear facilities would enhance or harm the long-range prospects for stability in the Persian Gulf or for freedom from nuclear blackmail. Still.....

As Jonathan Karl reports in a 6/30/08 article on the ABC News website,

The widely held view among Pentagon officials is that an Israeli attack would do only temporary damage to Iran's nuclear program, and that it would cause major problems in the region and beyond, prompting a wave of attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere.

And on 9/11/08 canada.com reported

Without citing where or how it received the information, the widely read Israeli daily said the U.S. had refused an Israeli request for deep penetration bombs, tanker refuelling aircraft and a corridor through U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq that would provide the quickest secure route between Israel and Iran, the newspaper reported.

The so-called "bunker buster" bombs that Israel was said to have sought could be particularly effective against Iran's nuclear research centres, many of which have been built in underground shelters.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak reportedly conveyed the request while visiting Washington.

The Israeli government had conveyed its requests to U.S. President George W. Bush when he visited Jerusalem in May, and repeated them several weeks later when Defence Minister Ehud Barak was in Washington, Haaretz reported.

"The Americans made very clear to the Israelis that for now they are sticking to the diplomatic option to halt the Iranian nuclear project, and that Jerusalem does not have a green light from Washington for an attack on Iran," Haaretz said

So the U.S. government apparently is currently discouraging Israel from attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. But Sarah Palin knows better. This is from the portion of her interview with Charlie Gibson broadcast on 9/11/08:

GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?

PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes.

GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran?

PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them.So we have got to put the pressure on Iran.

GIBSON: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?

PALIN: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don't think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.

GIBSON: So if we wouldn't second guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.

PALIN: I don't think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.

GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.

PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.

Question: If Sarah Palin believes "we cannot second guess" Israel, is she ignorant about United States policy- or does she believe that the world's only superpower has no interest in nuclear proliferation or stability in the Persian Gulf? Either way, she is unprepared for high national office- and John McCain's slogan "Country First" is yet again revealed as merely a cynical slap at Barack Obama's patriotism.

Well Put

A little credit is due Bob Schieffer, host of CBS' Face The Nation. Typically, the talking heads ask a potential vice presidential selection whether he/she is going to be selected or has spoken to the presumptive presidential nominee about joining him on the ticket. And the answer, predictably and inevitably, is noncommittal.

Schieffer, however, took a different tack when on Sunday's (8/17/08) Face The Nation he interviewed Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, reportedly on John McCain's very short list, and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, reportedly on Barack Obama's very short list. He asked the two, appearing jointly,

Gentlemen, what we've sort of been doing here as a matter of routine with potential running mates is if either of you has been told that you're going to be the nominee, we would certainly like to hear that from you this morning. Or if either of you have said that you've asked that your name be taken out of consideration, I'd like to hear from either of you on that. If not, I won't put you through this dance of how pleased you are to be talked about and all of that, but you can't say. Does anybody have announcement here?

The answer(s)?

Governor TIM PAWLENTY (Republican, Minnesota): I think the senator does.
Senator EVAN BAYH (Democrat, Indiana): Well, we may make news this morning, Bob, but it's not going to be that. So I hate to disappoint you, but nothing to report today.

This is a different and mature inquiry and one to which the response was at least a little bit revealing. There is no way to confirm that Bayh wasn't lying, but his response probably accurately suggested that neither has been told either that he will be selected or that he is out of the running. It seems to have confirmed the common wisdom that as of that (Sunday) morning, both were being seriously considered for the second spot. And the "we may make news this morning.... but not that nothing to report today" was actually a fairly clever and succinct way of making the point.

Huckabee On Obama

CNNpolitics.com on 6/18/08 notes that, according to a report by Agence France-Presse, Mike Huckabee has stated "Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonizing Barack Obama" and that the nation "did not see his color but we truly saw his charisma, his message and what he brought to the campaign trail." Still, the reporters in Tokyo, to whom the former Arkansas governor spoke, asked the former presidential candidate the obligatory question about his vice-presidential prospects, to which he replied "you can't accept an invitation to the prom until the football captain asks you. So I'm not going to go out and buy the outfit just yet."

Good thinking. If, prior to this interview, Mike Huckabee had roughly the same chance of being on the ticket as I (a Democrat) had, he now has less. Implying that criticism of Obama by the GOP could be seen as playing the racial card is not going to enhance Huckabee's reputation with party regulars. And auditioning for a V.P. nod by vigorously commending the opposing party's presidential nominee is never wise strategy. (Consider the shameless Mitt Romney, so lusting for the nod that he can't apply lips to John McCain's backside fast enough.)

And by the way, Governor, if the Repub Party does not demonize Barack Obama, it has roughly the same chance of winning the election as you do of being the Vice-Presidential nominee.

Vice-Presidential Consideration

In an article on salon.com on 6/6/08, Walter Shapiro argues that Barack Obama is unlikely to select as his running mate any of the usual suspects. Shapiro notes that the practice of the nominee choosing the V.P.-designate began only in 1960 and frequently has produced "a national embarassment- or worse." Think Agnew, Eagleton (a little unfair- but it was an embarrassment), Ferraro, Quayle, Lieberman, Cheney.

By contrast, through 1956 the convention iself selected the head guy's running mate. And in 1960, that process led to a fight among four giants: John F. Kennedy, Estes Kefauver, Al Gore Sr., and Hubert H. Humphrey.

Think about that a moment. We all remember John Kennedy. Then there was Albert Arnold Gore, whose son became Vice-President before being elected President in 2000, of whom it was said "never ran a negative campaign." The Tennessee senator who helped create the Interstate Highway System, was dedicated to fighting poverty, opposed the Vietnam War, and was one of only three southern Senators who refused to sign the segregationist Southern Manifesto. He supported the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after he had opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964- but later wrote in his memoirs of his regret over his position.

The other two senators opposing the Southern Manifesto? Lyndon B. Johnson and Estes Kefauver. That was Estes Kefauver, a supporter of antitrust activity and opponent of "the concentration of U.S. economic and political power under the control of a wealthy, exclusive elite." He served as chairman of the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce (Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses), whose televised hearings in 1950-1951 threw light on the danger of organized crime before American society, a la The Sopranos, began to glorify La Cosa Nostra.

And then there was Minnesota Senator, and Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey, who tirelesly fought for justice for the less fortunate in American society. At the Democratic Presidential Convention on July 14, 1948, Humphrey helped spark the walkout of Strom Thurmon's Dixicrats with a speech in which he declared

To those who say -- My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say -- To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.

Years later, we have a presumptive nominee whose slogan is "we are the ones we've been waiting for" and little experience by which to judge him; and a vanquished candidate, the spouse of a former president, who during the campaign compared her opponent unfavorably to the presumptive Republican nominee. The decline in the caliber of the national candidates of our party is disturbing. And stunning.