Advertisement
In a conference call with reporters, Lawton, a Democrat, said she was taken aback by the choice.
The 44-year-old Palin has served as Alaska’s governor for the last two years. Before that she was the mayor of Wasilla, a town of 6,500 about 30 miles north of Anchorage.
Lawton said Palin has absolutely no national security experience.
“If she becomes president of the United States of America, I think we would have someone who is pretty fragile at the helm,” Lawton said.
Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus called Lawton’s remark sexist. Palin’s experience leading the largest state in the union and the Alaska National Guard is more than Democratic presidential Barack Obama has, Priebus said.
“She’s, number one, an outsider, smart, articulate governor in a state that couldn’t get further from Washington,” he said. “She’s a person who finally can break that glass ceiling. We’re proud to nominate a female vice president.”
Lawton told The Associated Press after the conference call she meant Palin’s preparation to run the world’s only superpower has been fragile.
“I meant her political background. She has no global experience. She’s been mayor of a town half the size of DePere for two years and 18 months as governor. We are talking about a nation at war,” Lawton said.
“This is a clear measure of John McCain’s judgment of what one needs in preparation to be commander-in-chief.”
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, issued a statement saying Palin wasn’t ready.
“This choice calls into question both Senator McCain’s judgment and a McCain administration’s ability to lead a nation in crisis,” Baldwin said.
The GOP’s Priebus said Baldwin and Lawton have the “Barack Obama echo chamber with the blinders wrapped around their heads.”
“That’s all they have. Pretty weak,” Priebus said.
Palin’s political experience might be questionable, but it’s hard to quibble with her toughness.
She has spent summers fishing commercially with her part Yup’ik Eskimo husband, a business that once left her broken fingers. She has welcomed an investigation into whether she orchestrated the firing of a state trooper who went through a messy divorce with her sister.
She also has a child, Trig, with Down syndrome. Pro-life groups are praising her for saying she never considered aborting the child.
She has another child, Track, who serves in the U.S. Army at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks.
U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, issued a statement calling Palin a tough executive with high approval ratings.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, chimed in, too, saying in a statement she understands the importance of supporting American troops.
Priebus said Palin could give McCain a boost with Hillary Clinton supporters still bitter Obama beat her out for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“They like this independent, maverick governor from Alaska,” he said.
No, they don’t, said Baldwin and Lawton, who were staunch Clinton backers in her primary run.
Palin supports a McCain agenda that’s disrespectful to women by not granting them more health care, Lawton said.
Baldwin said McCain has misjudged those who rallied behind Clinton because they want to change.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle called Palin’s selection “a panic pick.”
“This decision clearly had nothing to do with being prepared to govern and everything to do with the McCain campaign’s dim political outlook,” Doyle said in a statement.
