Second Guessing McCain's VP Choice

With Obama in the lead of the campaign, and not much time left to  ahead, McCain's party has been analyzing McCain's vice presidential choice. 

According to the New York Times,  McCain's party is analyzing whether McCain would be in a better position in the campaign now if Sarah Palin was not chosen as the VP.  Many Republicans and Democrats all say yes to such a question. 

When McCain was in the process of making his VP decision, they set aside the traditional standards for picking a running mate. For example they set aside the criteria of choosing someone who could deliver a battleground state.  What attracted McCain to select Palin were for reasons such as:

-Her reformer credentials supported his own, which would reinforce and strengthen his abilty to run against Washington. This could possibly appeal to moderate and independent voters. 

-Her social views would help McCain to mend his relations with Conservatives.

-She is a woman, which could potentially attract woman voters who previously supported Hillary Clinton, and to those who were upset as to how Barack Obama teated her when she was running.

Now, as it is less than a week before the election, only one of those hopes have come true- that Palin has attracted more Conservatives. 

Polls have shown that her support, especially from women and independent voters,  has been declining, and more and more people are saying that she is not qualified to be VP. People are also starting to judge McCain in a negative way for even choosing her as a running mate. 

Many people are also complaining that her lack of experience of ever experiencing a national campaign is also making things worse for McCain's party. The Republican National Committee has spend over $150,000 on clothes and accessories on Sarah Palin and her family.  This has caused tensions between Palin and McCain, as he seems to feel disappointed in how she has carried herself in the campaign. 

McCain had considered  Mitt Romney as a running mate, and his advisors had also pushed him to consider people such as Joseph I. Lieberman, and Tom Ridge. They all had there advantags and disadvantages, but many say that such consideration would have lead McCain to be in a better position in the campaign today. 

However, McCain is stuck with Palin now, and she will at least deliver one thing for him: the state of Alaska and all of its three Electoral College votes.