I'm about to stick my neck out...

[figmo]

...and make a prediction re: the Presidential election.

I have been saying for months that if McCain were to select a female VP candidate, he'd win the election.

I stand by that statement.

This has nothing to do with anyone's political preferences, including mine. I am making this prediction as a journalist.

My logic: Barack Obama's VP, Joe Biden, is male, thus alienating the folks who voted for Hillary Clinton because they wanted a woman President. Many of Hillary Clinton's supporters felt alienated by Obama's choice.

Many of these Hillary Clinton supporters are so desperate to see the "glass ceiling" shattered they'd vote for anything female on a ticket, no matter what her viewpoints were. Now that they have their female on a ticket, many of these former Clinton supporters will vote for the Republican slate, mostly to have a woman only "a heartbeat away" from the oldest Presidential candidate ever, exclusively because of her gender even though Sarah Palin's viewpoints are very different from Hillary Clinton's.

Comments

Re: While I fear just this scenario

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I think McBane's VP selection is roughly even in positives and negatives. Positive: female, may attract female voters too dumb to notice or believe the candidate's anti-feminist views. Views in line with the extreme right may appease far right voters who think McBane is some sort of left-wing hippie. Negative: Female, may alienate extreme right voters who think she should stay at home and take care of her children & a woman could never be president. Far-right anti-feminist venom will alienate women who are intellegent & voted for Hillary,

I'm in my wait-and-see mode, and thinking positive thoughts. Sometimes realities of being in office shock candidates into correcting their views. For example, conservative Supreme Court appointees sometimes cast votes that don't seem conservative at all. I expect to be surprised, and that is my prediction. It's a very safe prediction.