Published: September 02, 2008 02:34 pm            

VP pick Palin on right side of abortion issue

Weather science, we may not be too surprised to learn, is a more exact discipline than political science. The only reason I turned the television on Friday morning was to find out path projections on Gustav, the latest hurricane to potentially threaten New Orleans, my hometown.

The great thing about satellite imaging and radar these days is, within an error factor of a few miles, wherever the storm eventually lands on the Gulf Coast, everyone will know about it well ahead of time. It turns out this kind of predictability is vastly different from the politics of picking a vice presidential running mate.

Instead of a hurricane update, what was being broadcast was the surprising news that Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, is John McCain’s choice for vice presidential running mate. While most eyes, mine included, were on Massachusetts and Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nominee’s VP pick, our attention was jettisoned to Alaska, the entire opposite corner of the United States.

A weather forecaster who missed a hurricane prediction by that many miles would be out of a job! No pundit or political insider was predicting or even mentioning her as a possibility. That she landed on the Republican platform for the second highest office in the land came as a shock.

Stunned, I remember saying to myself, “Who?” joining perhaps millions of other Americans simultaneously wondering the same thing.

Palin, of course, is the second woman to be asked to serve as a vice presidential running mate. Walter Mondale tapping Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 was the first. It has been over two decades since that announcement was made but in my mind was no less stunning, though for a different reason.

Twenty-four years ago American voters were not ready for a woman elected to that high an office, possibly to become president should something happen to her mentor. When Mondale picked Ferraro, it seemed to me he was sending up a signal he knew his race was doomed and had decided to turn it into an act of symbolism.

Things have changed. America is more than ready. Today, McCain’s pick is not symbolic. Bold, yes, symbolic, no.

Palin appears to tug at all the right strings of Republican conservatives. And while liberal Democrats will be dismissive of her candidacy, the initial response by many has been to get them genuinely excited about a McCain presidency for the first time, in some measure because Palin is a pro-life straight arrow.

Aside from being the most liberal candidate since George McGovern, given the opportunity, Barrack Obama’s stance on abortion will most certainly see him appointing Supreme Court justices who share his pro-choice views.

One of the great ironies of our time is that the party that prides itself with being the protector of the disenfranchised and powerless ignores the rights of the most disenfranchised and helpless among us – the unborn.

In today’s pro-choice America the only ones who don’t get to choose are the ones with the most to lose.

        

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