What Sarah Palin has in common with Jesse Jackson

If you're among the many critics of Sarah Palin, the news of her recent rambling speech in Iowa and the conservative fallout around it won't be that surprising. Still, it reminds me on a smaller scale of the similar sort of "fading star" treatment the Rev. Jesse Jackson got from Democratic Party leaders after his presidential runs were all done and nobody seemed to know what a Jesse Jackson should be doing if not running for president.

Many wanted him to run for mayor of Washington, D.C., which at the time was still struggling with longtime mayor Marion Barry's much-documented troubles with cocaine and extramarital affairs. But in 1989, as a potential Jackson mayoral bid loomed, the always-quotable Barry issued perhaps the most stinging zinger ever landed against the civil rights icon when he told a reporter: "Jesse don't wanna run nothin but his mouth."

Jackson's influence slipped further in 2001 with news that he'd fathered a child by a woman with whom he'd had an extramarital affair. He has since watched the younger Rev. Al Sharpton slip past him to become today's arguably most prominent civil rights activist, with a talk show on MSNBC and his own national organization.

It appears conservatives have a similar back-seat role in mind for Sarah Palin. With the exception of his much-publicized crude remark against then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, Jackson seems to have taken it with quiet grace. It remains to be seen if Sarah Palin is willing to go as gently into that good night.

--Eric Frazier

Shrewd choice, but with risks

Could this campaign possibly get more interesting?

Sen. John McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his ticket is a shrewd move. It's been obvious for weeks plenty of Hillary Clinton supporters – many of them women disgusted at what they saw as misogyny in the presidential campaign that plenty of liberals never noticed or decried – weren't sold on Barack Obama. How many will now consider voting for the McCain-Palin ticket? Probably quite a few.

Palin is attractive (she was runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant), mother of five, an avid outdoorswoman with a reputation as a reformer in a state whose long-time U.S. senator is under indictment. Wikipedia reported she was also point guard on a state championship high school basketball team – that's sure to resonate with North Carolinians. She's a former union member, married to a union member.

On the other hand, it's the undecided and independent voters who will likely decide this election. They're an unpredictable crowd, with diverse interests and outlooks. Choosing a socially conservative, pro-NRA, reform-minded woman may well be quirky enough to win over independents who might have been wavering toward Obama, or those who don't really look at policy positions and issue statements so much as going with their gut.

It's shrewd but it's also risky. Many Clinton supporters are disgusted with the Republican Party's and the Bush administration's steady assault on legal abortion. Bush's Supreme Court choices have put Roe v. Wade clearly in jeopardy. McCain himself is staunchly anti-abortion, despite all the trial balloons about choosing an abortion rights veep candidate. So is Palin.

How many Clinton supporters would be OK with such an anti-abortion ticket, versus those who would approve and those who don't care? Hard to predict.

Also, as political analysts were speedy to point out, it will be tricky now for McCain and the GOP to keep attacking Obama's lack of experience.

McCain is 72 (his birthday is today) and has had cancer twice. He's reported to be cancer-free and in good health. But any actuarial table will show he's less likely to live through an eight-year set of presidential terms than a 47-year-old like Obama. How much will voters fret over the possibility of a vice president with so little political experience?

Palin's been governor of a state with only 670,000 people – it's about the size of Charlotte – and only since election in 2006. Before that she was on the city council and then mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 5,470, although she ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2002.

This year's campaign has already made history – twice – and been as fun to watch as any Aaron Sorkin script might have been. The next two months will continue this historic campaign's role.

Posted by Mary Newsom.