From The First Post:
Should Republicans ‘flip the ticket’ and go with Palin for President?
A bizarre suggestion that the Republicans should 'flip the ticket' - in other words, make Sarah Palin their presidential candidate and John McCain her running mate - has been gaining ground since Frank Rich added his weight to the idea in a New York Times column at the weekend. "You have to wonder how long it will be before they plead with him [McCain] to think of his health, get out of the way and pull the ultimate stunt of flipping the ticket," wrote Rich. "Palin, we can be certain, wouldn't even blink."
Rich argued that McCain was fading into "incoherence and irrelevance" and was in danger of being overshadowed by Palin. He said McCain was campaigning "without an economic message", which would severely hurt his chances in the Rust Belt states such as Michigan. This was the state McCain all but conceded last week when he withdrew his campaign staff - a decision his running mate publicly questioned at the weekend.
There are also lingering questions about McCain's physical and mental health, according to Rich. The Republican candidate is looking increasingly shaky "whether he's repeating his 'Miss Congeniality' joke twice in the same debate... or repeatedly confusing proper nouns that begin with S (Sunni, Shia, Sudan, Somalia, Spain)". As for McCain's "kamikaze mission" to Washington during the recent bail-out bill crisis, it "seemed crazed".
Against this backdrop, Palin has outdone McCain with her self-confidence and "hyper ambition", claimed Rich. Palin admitted she hadn't "even blinked" when asked if she wanted to be McCain's running-mate, and she was oddly "flip and chipper" when Gwen Ifill, the moderator in the vice presidential TV debate, asked how she would govern should McCain die in office. Palin, Rich concludes, "wants to be president, she thinks she can be president, she thinks she will be president". And since the VP debate, it had become clear to Republicans that "it's Palin, not McCain, who is their last hope for victory".
Mike Smithson has picked up Rich's argument on the British site PoliticalBetting.com, saying he is putting £23 (a portion of the profit he made on his bet that Mandelson would not serve a full term as EU Trade Commissioner) on Palin becoming the next president. The potential winnings are £10,026. "Crazy? Maybe - maybe not," says Smithson.
He argues that Palin has form: "At every stage in her political career the male politicians who have helped her to progress have later found themselves being knifed. Her latest public criticism of McCain for getting out of Michigan seems remarkable and suggests she is trying to distance herself from her running mate."
In America, conservative bloggers are piling in behind the idea, even if, with four weeks to go before the election, it is far-fetched. Chris Allen Gaubatz writes: "We need a true reformer, someone who will go in and truly cut out the pork, not just talk about it... I know it's wishful thinking, but I sure wish we could flip the ticket. Palin/McCain sure does have a nice ring". Dictophobia agrees. McCain "looks like a feeble old man completely out of his depth... Flip the ticket and allow Sarah Palin to take on Osama [sic]".
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