Open thread: Bright, clean, articulate nominee introduces VP in Springfield; Update: Video added; Update: 20% less likely to vote McCain if he picked woman VP, says poll

posted at 2:25 pm on August 23, 2008 by Allahpundit
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John Miller wanted to see that headline, so there you go. 3 p.m. ET around the dial; if you’re tuned in, comment below. We’ll be taping so look for video here later in case Biden cracks a fried chicken joke or pats Obama on the head or does something else refreshingly politically incorrect for the left to coo over. Your exit question while you wait: Where does this leave McCain with his own VP pick? Stephen Hayes and Tom Bevan offer unconvincing answers (Lieberman and, er, John Kasich, respectively), but Bevan’s analysis is otherwise spot on. If Obama had named Hillary, Maverick might have been forced to throw a Hail Mary with Joementum or Palin or Carly Fiorina. As it is, one safe pick permits another, which means Mitt or Pawlenty. The latter’s safer than the former among the base, but I can’t see undecideds handing the keys to the country to a guy no one outside of Minnesota has ever heard of. I have to think it’s Mitt.

Special bonus exit question: Why exactly is Palin a worse choice than Pawlenty? I swear I remember seeing a poll somewhere that McCain would actually lose points from picking a woman VP, but after 20 minutes of googling I can’t find it. Can anyone help?

Update: Hotline’s on the same page.

Update: You know who this helps, asks Hugh Hewitt? Mitt Romney.

Update: Commenters have dubbed this the “Clean and Jerk” ticket.

Update: Obama-NBC has video of both speeches uncut.

Update: Bill Amos found the poll I was looking for. Why Pawlenty is better than Palin:

For all the chatter about the pros and cons of picking a female vice president, a new poll commissioned by Lifetime finds that women are not particularly likely to be influenced by the selection of a lady VP. In the poll, 55% of women say that Obama’s selection of a female running mate would make no difference to their voting choice, and 62% said the same of McCain. (A Republican woman VP could actually hurt McCain. A full 20% responded that they would be LESS likely to support the GOP nominee if he selected a female on the ticket.)

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