McCain’s next stunt?

by | Oct 10, 2008


Here’s some idle speculation for Friday. Starting points:

  • John McCain is now in deep trouble – pundits are talking about the election as a done deal.
  • He clearly can’t stand Barack ‘that one‘ Obama – and Obama is subtly feeding his anger.
  • When cornered, McCain’s instinct is to do something dramatic – pick Palin as VP, suspend his campaign to fight the financial meltdown etc.
  • Sarah Palin has haemorrhaged support with mainstream voters, but is building a strong bond with the base. Her main political interest in now in 2012 not 2008.
  • The Alaskan legislature will report on the Troopergate mess today and there are signs that the report could be damaging (though not necessarily fatally so).

Now one would expect the McCain/Palin campaign to tough Troopergate out – after all, they’ve played a pretty ruthless offense so far. But what if McCain wanted to make one last attempt to reclaim the election. Imagine how it might play out…

  • Report is published. McCain/Palin campaign let the flames burn for a while (rather than rushing into douse them). Media frenzy builds.
  • Tearful Sarah Palin gives press conference to withdraw as VP. Presents herself as the victim of a sexist, elitist media that has drunk the Obama Kool-Aid. Can’t bear to be a distraction any longer, but promises to be back once she’s cleared her name in Alaska.
  • A shaken and angry McCain accepts her resignation. The base is in flames. The McCain camp seemingly in disarray.
  • A news cycle later – McCain is back with Romney as his new pick for VP. Announces that Romney’s job will be to work exclusively on the fallout from the financial meltdown. He’s the only man with the CV to get the US out of this mess.
  • McCain/Romney then run on experience in public, Obama’s character behidn the scenes and through surrogates (all the old stuff – but now also ‘He killed Sarah! The bastard’)
  • We all sit back to see whether, this time, the stunt will work.

Will it happen? Probably not. But if it does, you read it here first…

Update: It doesn’t need to be Romney who replaces Palin. Indeed, McCain could pick anyone who he thought would be the most plausible White Knight to ride in and rescue the American (and global) economy. Bloomberg? Greenspan? Anyone who would seem right today and for at least the rest of the month…

Author

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.

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