The Best Man for the Job

in this case just may be a woman. I watched - as did probably millions of others - Sarah Palin's first major speech last night. I think she did pretty well but I'm already concerned with something and have even had discussions with co-workers about it this morning. And that is what her role should really be.

The traditional assumption is that the VP goes on the attack against the opposing Pres. candidate. Where did that concept come from in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me. If it did then we should have Joe Biden debate McCain and Obama debate Palin.

I've been to a couple of seminars with management guru John Maxwell and one thing he says that goes against the conventional wisdom is that we often focus on our weakness and work really hard to try to make it better/faster/stronger. He goes the other way. Example - you may be an average runner but not really fast. And you have to run a triathlon or something so you spend all this time training to run faster. You might even improve your time but how much? At at what expense? What if you get injured? And what about the other two events? Have you cut back on training for them? Maxwell advises to focus on your strengths. Work to make them even better and stronger.

Now back to Palin. Does she have foreign policy experience? She will need some briefings to make sure she knows how to pronounce the names of the world leaders but does she need to know - RIGHT NOW - how to solve the problems between Israel and its neighbors? She ought to know there are problems still brewing in Georgia and with Russia and that the capital is not Athens but rather Tbilisi. But beyond that no one expects her to come up with the Nobel winning solution for these and many other large problems.

Right now her job is to help McCain get elected. And I think the GOP and others will waste a valuable resource if the focus is on her being attack dog against Obama. She can't talk much about experience even if on paper she might actually have more. That will backfire or at best waste time. She needs to stay away from the "I will fight the lobbyists," line since she has her own track record on this.

What can she do? Everyone agrees she can energize the conservatives in the way McCain couldn't or won't. She may be able to connect with independent women and even some democratic women. But I don't think she does that buy attacking Obama. I think she does that by saying and showing that she is a woman, a mother, a person with a career and family to juggle. She's not obviously rich. I think she can identify and relate to many many women. Not card-carrying members of NOW or NARAL (or whatever they call themselves these days) but the average woman out there trying to make ends meet, struggling with her kids, balancing a checkbook in the line at Wal-Mart to make sure there is enough.

Hillary was shrill. Palin is comfortable.

I hope they don't put her out on the stump trying to explain every little detail about McCain's health care plan and why it will finally solve all our problems while Obama's won't. Just let her talk about how she cares about health care and she will be an advocate in the White House for those who struggle with high costs and no insurance and possibly no access to proper medical care. Just relate to people and tell them we will work on it and that she will make this a priority. Don't try to solve it all now. I think one mistake all politicians make is telling us exactly how they will fix this or that when in reality even the President can only do so much.

I guess bottom line I hate to see her get spoiled. I'm afraid all the handlers will tell her exactly what to say, when and where and how to say it. If McCain truly picked her as a kindred spirit then leave her alone. She'll probably make some mistakes and say some things wrong. But let her speak as herself on things she knows about.

Find out what her strengths really are, what issues she really cares about and focus on those.