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Any remaining doubts about whether Arizona Senator John McCain would be like a national demotion from the disastrous Bush presidency are wiped out by his choice of running mate. The name of his selection for Vice-President is Sarah Palin. She became governor of Alaska in December 2006.

Like McCain, Gov. Palin is a Christian conservative, which means she holds that life begins at conception and, therefore, she would ban abortion. Because, as Ayn Rand pointed out, anyone who rejects a woman’s right to choose abortion inherently rejects an individual’s right to life, her and his opposition to the right to an abortion is sufficient reason to reject the McCain/Palin ticket.

But this woman does not appear to be marginally qualified to be president of the United States of America. Besides elected terms in local politics—she was mayor of a town with 6,715 people—Palin is possibly the least qualified major candidate for the vice-presidency in recent history; it is simply impossible to take her seriously as a potential commander in chief.

Gov. Palin is on the ticket to appeal to McCain’s target demographic: religionists—including feminists (feminism—the belief that a person should be judged solely based on sexual characteristics—is a sort of religion). Aiming for the Hillary feminists and religionists, both snarling types as we have seen, McCain apparently believes that enough true believers will put him in the White House.

He may be right. But that John McCain, who is 72, seriously proposes that Sarah Palin is prepared to lead a nation at war is disgraceful—even for a conservative. Though his countless attempts to violate individual rights ought to make it clear to any rational voter that he is unfit to lead, the selection of Palin—one of many dreadful choices throughout his military and political careers—proves that his judgment is irrational.

The McCain presidency will be dedicated to one idea: moral duty to the state, the theme of his presidential campaign, and that means anything from a return to the draft of young Americans for long, bloody, selfless and aimless militarism to new attacks on individual rights. Gov. Palin reinforces McCain’s missionary zeal to enact militarism and moralism.

A vote for Barack Obama—the only candidate talking about Abraham Lincoln, a great president who led the nation to unity during wartime—could cause the Republican Party to re-connect to its roots in favor of rights. There is evidence of this development. For the first time since 1980, when George Herbert Walker Bush suddenly abandoned his pro-choice position on abortion to accept the party’s nomination as vice-presidential candidate (running with anti-abortion Ronald Reagan), a pro-choice candidate (former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge) was under serious consideration for the veep slot. This is a direct result of the Obama candidacy.

Today, in a televised speech postponing the Republican National Convention in Minnesota due to a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, John McCain unveiled what could become a national motto if his play for femi-religionists draws the faithful to elect him president: “pray for the best, prepare for the worst.”

The antidote is: Vote for Obama/Biden.

Scott Holleran © 2008

Delaware Senator Joe Biden is presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s designated vice-presidential nominee and I think he’s a solid choice for Obama. The 65-year old liberal meets key criteria for aiding an Obama victory over conservative Christian Republican John McCain, which would be an electoral rejection of religionist domination of the GOP.

Widely viewed as independent, Sen. Biden, who, like Obama, never moved to the nation’s capital, lays claim to Obama’s anti-Washington campaign theme. Like Obama, the single dad’s personal biography is possible only in America. Besides appealing to labor and blue collar Catholic types that eluded Obama in his race against Clinton, his credentials—except for a plagiarized speech decades ago—are good.

Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the contentious, and, in retrospect, pivotal, Supreme Court nomination hearings for conservative Justice Clarence Thomas and the rejected conservative Judge Robert Bork. My recollection of those hearings is that Biden was a consistent voice of reason, with a tendency to speechify, who, at least to some extent, used individual rights as the standard for measuring a nominee’s qualifications. Biden, who ran for president against Obama earlier in this campaign, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Scott Holleran © 2008

Obama’s Springfield, Illinois, announcement was patriotic, evoking our 16th president, Honest Abe Lincoln, and decorated by a huge American flag. Obama entered to an idealistic U2 song, introducing Biden as an equal valued for his independence—explicitly rejecting the notion of a “yes man”—and enthusiasm for Obama’s choice drowns the clatter of bitter Hillary feminists carping about catharsis and trying to derail Obama’s election.

Biden’s words were sharp, naming honesty as a top Obama administration virtue and praising the liberal Obama for his judgment, intelligence and courage and assuring the nation that Obama has both a strong mind and “steel in his spine.” His best moment—and hinting at the case for Obama’s candidacy—is Biden’s description of the race as a contest between “a wise leader” and “a good soldier”.

This is a reference to the fact that McCain will continue, even expand, the Bush administration’s deployment of the United States military in untenable situations (I think McCain will also resurrect the draft) while Obama—whose candidacy is founded on the idea that the selfless Iraq engagement must end—will stop it.

Obama and Biden, joined by their wives, exited the Springfield stage to Bruce Springsteen’s stirring and triumphant song about the nation’s recovery following the worst attack in American history (“The Rising”). The event was a pure political production, though it represents the clear, unavoidable choice facing each American voter in this presidential election: reject the status quo or bow to more of the same.