Palin selection no surprise

The national news media and political pundits may have been surprised by the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the vice presidential running mate to John McCain, but I wasn’t.

I’ve said for two months now, that one of the candidates would select a woman governor for the second slot on the presidential ticket.  I wasn’t sure which one, but I knew one of them would.  It just made sense.

Obama has had no administrative experience.  He needed someone who could bring that to his ticket.  He also had to appeal to women and a woman governor selection would have filled both of those voids.  I even speculated that our own governor Christine (call me Chris) Gregoire would have been on that list.

When Obama opted to fill his other void, that of inexperienced foreign policy, with Joe Biden, I knew McCain would jump at a woman governor.  He had to.

McCain, as a member of the US Senate, has also had no administrative experience.  No one is more experienced at administration than the governor of the state.   He also needed to pick up those dissatisfied  Hillary Clinton voters.  He needed a woman governor.

I didn’t know which of the few Republican women governors he would select but I knew it would be one of them.   Palin came as a surprise only because she is the lesser known of all women Republican governors.

In her initial speech, Palin spoke directly to women and made her plea that Hillary Clinton had cracked the glass ceiling, now it was time to shatter that ceiling.

The selection of Palin also did one more thing.  It took away the historical perspective of the Obama campaign.  Now, people can vote for the first black president or the first woman vice president. 

Whatever happens, history will be made.  But it shouldn’t have come as any surprise.