Sarah Palin: The Republican Thomas Eagleton

For those of you who are too young to remember the 1972 Presidential election, read up on Thomas Eagleton in the wikipedia entry here.

In a nutshell, the Democratic candidate, George McGovern, named Thomas Eagleton as his running mate nominee, and the media dug up negative information about him to force McGovern to withdraw his offer, and name a replacement. Embarrassing all around, and it certainly contributed to McGovern's overwhelming loss that year (although, with the Republicans committing multiple felonies to secure Nixon's re-election, it was a lost cause anyway).

In an ironic move for the pro-torture Republican party, the embarrasements about Palin continue to drip out like Chinese water torture. Here are some of the analogies between Palin and Eagleton:

• Both nominations were made after minimal background checks; see today's article for McCain's shocking incompetence.
• Both appointments were made after multiple better-qualified people turned the position down (with Palin, that's an assumption at this point, although surely McCain would have picked a Republican not under an ethics investigation, such as.....uhm.....well, I can't think of any just now, but surely there's a Republican mayor of a town of 6,500 people SOMEWHERE in the country not under an ethics investigation. Isn't there?).
• The Presidential candidate initially backed his VP nominee, only to later ask the nominee to withdraw (again, with Palin that's an assumption, but if she doesn't withdraw, Obama will be able to act like George Bush being given a national security memo warning of an imminent terrorist attack, and take a month long vacation before the election).
• With both nominations, the public wasn't particularly concerned, but the media attention was a distraction from the Presidential candidate's messaging efforts, leading to the withdrawl of the nomination.
• Both nominations cast serious doubts on the Presidential candidate's judgement (if McCain chose Palin in broad daylight, who would have chosen if called at 3 a.m.? James Stockdale? Dan Quayle?).
• Both Presidential candidates' last name begins with "Mc".

There are differences, of course. The biggest is that in the 1972 election, McGovern only won one state and the District of Columbia; there is no way McCain will win the District of Columbia in 2008.

Also, Eagleton was nominated before the Internet series of tubes was invented, so he never had a blog. You should definitely read Sarah Palin's blog here.