McCain's Choice - Sarah Palin

As I saw the announcement on Fox News, it was clear that this was a very shrewd choice! With only half of Clinton's supporters saying that they will throw their support behind Barack Obama, there is huge potential for John McCain to make inroads, and what better way to do so than by bribing voters with potentially the first female Vice President.

In doing so he has turned one of his biggest negatives, the notion that he is old enough that he might die in office, into a half positive for women voters. If he were to do so, America would have its first female President.

Many question whether female voters would be that easily tempted, especially when she is representing a party which does not traditionally gain that much support from women voters. Whilst it is true that many will not be tempted to switch sides, the underlying factor is that the women voter bloc comprises over 50% of the electorate. It cannot be discussed in the same way that the 'black voter bloc' or the 'hispanic voter bloc' can. If McCain-Palin can win just a few percent more of the women's vote than Bush-Cheney did, that could well be the margin of victory.

What this comes down to is the fact that women voters do not get the respect they deserve from political tacticians, and they certainly didn't from the Obama campaign. I need not remind you that had Obama gone with my prefered choice of Governor Sebelius, this would not have been an issue for him. They are the largest of the talked about 'voter blocs', more so than religious voters, environmentalists, blacks, latinos, rich or poor and yet they seem to hold very little power of presidential political strategists. A win here for McCain could change that.

The signs of a Republican insurgency into the female vote were evident at the last election. Many argue that it was Bush's ability to win-over 'soccer moms' in 2004 that was behind his victory, and it appears that McCain is going to do the same. It worked then, why not now.

So what should the Obama campaign be doing to combat this? Issue-Ads, and now! Remind voters that she might be a woman, but she wants to take away your right to abortion. Is it really worth giving away your rights on the long shot that she might get 6 months in the West Wing?

Washington