Charlie_Brennan's Blog

Bold, surprising and daring would also be the right description, were I to decide to wear a dress. But that wouldn’t mean it’s a good idea.

I’m never afraid to steal good material, and in this case I’m stealing from Metro State College political science professor Norman Provizer, in saying that Wikipedia is going to crash today with all the people logging on to find out who this woman is.

Mother of five, check. “Gun-toting” (CNN’s words) member of the NRA, check. Former city council and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Check. First female governor of that state. Check. Forty-four years old, and celebrating her 20th wedding anniversary to a union-card-carrying commercial fisherman, check, check, and check.

That, right there, is more than two out of one hundred people walking down the 16th Street Mall could have told you about Palin prior to about 10 a.m. Friday.

But that’s not the heart of my reason for thinking this is a questionable pick for the Republicans.

It is impossible for me to imagine McCain would select someone with such a slim resume under any circumstances that didn’t include the Democrats having an African-American heading up their ticket.

This move by McCain seems 100-percent responsive to the Democrats’ historic nomination of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. It’s a defensive, parrying move, a counter. And, that, alone doesn’t mean this is a mistake by McCain, who is in a race so close that neither side can afford more than about two between now and Nov. 4.

“Politics is always a dance, and rarely do you have the opportunity just to dance alone,” said Norman Provizer, political science professor at Metro State College.

“You always have to figure out what your partner in the campaign is doing, and that’s part of it. I think there was this idea of, how can we do something different, get attention?

Simply put, the other guy runs an African-American at the top of the ticket, and ruffles some female feathers at the same time by rejecting a highly credible woman? How do you counter? Simple; pick a young woman to pair with your elderly white standard bearer. It’s simple political math.

But, this woman? Palin is staunchly pro-life. How many jilted Hillary supporters are you going to pick up with this kind of selection? One commentator earlier today – I’d give credit if I knew where it was due – labeled here “Dan Quayle with a ponytail.”

At least this would seem to ensure Alaska’s measly three votes in the Electoral College – balancing nicely with the three that Sen. Joe Biden should deliver from Delaware. So, clearly, this choice was not about delivering a key battleground state.

In an interview not that long ago, Palin was rather dismissive about the role of the vice president, showing that she hasn’t been paying much attention to the man who has spent the past eight years turning it into something more substantial than the presidency – providing you’ve got the right guy in the Oval Office.

According to Politico.com, in an interview just a month ago on CNBC’s “Kudlow & Company,” Palin dismissed speculation – what little there was at the time – that she might get the nod, saying, “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?

“I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here…” It has been quite some time since I’ve heard the second-highest post in the land discussed in terms of whether or not it will be good for Alaskans.

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, from Colorado’s 4th CD, told me today she can’t wait to seen Palin go toe-to-toe in a debate with Biden- a longtime fixture and chair on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. I can’t either, but I think Musgrave and I mean it different ways.

Republican political consultant Katy Atkinson said to me that the seeming experience mismatch between Palin and Biden doesn’t matter.

“People are voting for people at the top of the ticket,” not the number-two slot. “Just like Joe Biden's experience in foreign affairs does not solve Barack Obama's problem, Sarah Palin's lack of experience in foreign affairs, I don’t think it creates a new problem for John McCain, because people will vote on the top of the ticket.”

Look. I’m tired. Everyone around here, at the end of the Week that Was, is tired. It may be, after I catch up on my sleep, that I come to understand the wisdom of this pick much more clearly. Maybe I’ll get it perfectly clearly when we see the results of this very interesting battle the night of Nov. 4 (providing our vote count doesn’t take several weeks, again).

But for now, I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor.

Even without John McCain’s other new running mate, Hurricane Gustav, the days ahead should be very interesting.

   I once said “no thanks” to Don Imus – and as a reward became a running “bit” for a spell on his recently terminated talk show.

     And, I was a fan. Or, I-fan, as the lexicon of the program would have it.

     The year would have been somewhere in the early ‘90s, when he was still carried on Denver radio airwaves . That hasn’t been the case now for several years, leaving Colorado Imus fans relegated to catching the program’s simulcast version on MSNBC.

     The circumstance was simple. My reasons for taking a pass were less so – and relate not just a little bit to the dynamics that ultimately brought the I-man down.

     I was a reporter at the Rocky Mountain News at the time. Imus and his crew were in town for a remote broadcast from a local hotel. My editors knew I was a dedicated Imus listener, and dispatched me to the hotel at 5 a.m. Denver time to write a feature story on the visiting celebrity talk-show host.

     In doing my reporting that morning, my main focus was on the show’s content and the types of folks who would slough their pajamas at that brutal hour to come sit in a hotel ballroom drinking bad coffee to watch the gabfest live.

     At one point I approached show producer Bernard McGuirk, whose by-play with Imus the day Imus self-destructed was, characteristically, no small factor in the offensive debacle.

     Telling McGuirk I hoped for a few minutes with Imus during a commercial break and giving him my card, I returned to my seat in one of the folding chairs. At the next break, McGuirk returned and asked me if I would take a seat next to Imus at a microphone, and join the show in its next segment.

     I hadn’t envisioned my chat with Imus being on the air, and told McGuirk I’d rather not. I remember saying, “I probably wouldn’t be helping your show very much.” And meant it. He didn’t seem bothered, went back to his business, and that was that.

     I thought.

     But a few moments later, Imus was back on the air. He told his national audience, with a chuckle – and this is my best-guess re-creation years after the fact -- “We got Charlie Brennan here from the Rocky Mountain News, and we asked him to join us, but he’s said he’d rather not.” That’s not verbatim. And memory plays tricks over a decade, but I believe he added a crack along the lines that I was probably exhibiting some good common sense.

     It didn’t end there.

     To my surprise, and I’ll admit delight -- being someone who would plan my morning commute around hitting as much of his show as my drive would allow --  that brief bit developed a second life of its own.

     It was soon woven into one of the periodic “Best of Imus” programs which stations carrying his show would be offered as substitute filler programming during his periodic vacations.

     By saying no to the I-man, I ended up getting far more exposure on his show than I might have, had I said yes.

     Although I made the decision not to go on in an instant, there were several factors that played into it; one is directly related to the dynamics that brought his show down.

     First and foremost was the old-school conviction that I was there as an objective news reporter, writing about something I was observing. I was attempting to maintain my professional distance from my subject matter.

     Second, it was barely dawn. I wasn’t feeling funny. I was half-awake. What I told McGuirk was true. I didn’t think I could add much.

     But finally, as a regular listener I knew quite well that once guests stepped into Imus’s world, there was no telling where the conversational journey might lead – no matter how brief. I knew that if I didn’t go on, I wouldn’t end up regretting anything, except perhaps a brief glimpse of larger “fame.”

     Not too long after that, JonBenet Ramsey was killed. I was outside the house the night her body was carried out by the coroner’s staff. My professional life for several years thereafter became defined by the case and my coverage of it.

     During those Ramsey years, when I became a semi-regular guest “expert” on “Larry King Live” and made numerous television and radio appearances elsewhere, I’d periodically find myself wistfully wishing Imus would call again, now that I had something to offer on a subject for which many folks had a seemingly insatiable appetite.

     That call never came.

     For me, the I-ship has sailed.

     I watched his crash-and-burn last week with the same sadness as any fan who knew that his program was a home for not just sophomoric humor, but also some of the most intelligent, in-depth discussion with major players on the national political and journalistic scene available on the airwaves.

     But like any fan who knew the turf, I’m mostly surprised that something like this didn’t happen much sooner. I think it says as much about changes in the culture we now inhabit, as it does about whether Imus is truly a racist or not.

     However, I know this.

     That instinctive decision to keep my mouth shut that morning and stay in my folding chair with pen and notepad is looking better all the time.