Sarah Palin Mattered

by Susan Estrich

For years I've been dining out on the story of the 1988 vice presidential debate, where Lloyd Bentsen literally cleaned Dan Quayle's clock — "You're no Jack Kennedy" — resulting in a huge increase in his own approval ratings and virtually no bump at all for the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket.

Quayle and Spiro T. Agnew have long been Exhibits A and B buttressing the conventional wisdom that people vote for president, not vice president; that having the better candidate for the No. 2 slot is all but irrelevant to winning the election; and that anytime you see one of those "who would you rather have a heartbeat away from the presidency" ads, it's an almost certain sign that the campaign running it is a heartbeat away from defeat.

Most of the time, the interest in the vice presidential nominee peaks in the hours leading up to the announcement. The minute we know who it is, we — the media, the country and especially the voters — lose interest.

So it was for Joe Biden. The run-up to Obama's vice presidential announcement had the media in a frenzy. Far-fetched rumors were flying. Then the announcement was made, and that was that. Sure, Biden. Right. Did anyone vote for Barack Obama because of Biden? Maybe not. Then again, did anyone vote against him because of the Delaware senator? Why would they? A perfect vice presidential selection.

Sarah Palin was another story. Her selection, and this election, may change forever the conventional wisdom about vice presidential nominees. Whether a good choice can help you remains to be established; my Bentsen story may still be controlling on that issue. But it should now be clear that a bad choice — and Palin was most certainly a bad choice — can do great harm to a presidential campaign.

The fact that McCain's top people are talking out of school about Palin's weaknesses is a sign of just how bad a choice she was. She hurt them. She should not escape unscathed. They are clearly angry.

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