Republican National Convention Preview
Friday, August 29, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: Senator John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate today, just days ahead of the Republican convention. She is a 44-year-old mother of five and has been governor of Alaska for 18 months. She will join fellow Republicans on Monday in St. Paul, Minnesota where McCain will be nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Our Washington bureau chief Darren Gersh has been covering the election for us and joins us now with a preview. Hey Darren. That was a big surprise today.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: A little bit, huh, a small one.
GHARIB: By choosing Governor Palin, what do you think Senator McCain, what message is he trying to signal to voters?
GERSH: Oh, the maverick is back. That's the message the campaign wants to send out, Susie. And then he wants to run as a maverick. He wants to take on, you know, big interests, special interests, maybe big business and to show that, he reached way outside of Washington. Any further and he'd have been in Siberia. You know, Palin has an interesting reputation as a reformer, somebody who bucked her own party, who is in favor of small government. And conservatives really like her reputation because she opposed that bridge to nowhere that they're so upset about.
GHARIB: Right, right. Well, Darren, as you know, everybody in this election is talking about the economy. Did she bring any economic text (ph) to the McCain ticket?
GERSH: I talked to Doug Holestig (ph), McCain's economic advisor. He said, look, she has strong credentials as a fiscal conservative, but we just don't know. We don't know a lot about her. She has been very focused on Alaska issues, which is one reason that voters there really like her. When I talked to Doug he said that she does have international experience because the oil industry is international, especially because there are a lot of pipelines and she's worked on a pipeline through Canada. But, you know, when I read the newspaper, it doesn't seem to me that our big issues around the world are in Canada.
GHARIB: You're right about that. Palin is pro-drilling in Alaska and some people might translate that to mean she's also pro big oil. Is that the case?
GERSH: Some people, meaning the Obama campaign? I mean, they're already pushing that out. And, yes, she is in favor of drilling. She been a strong proponent of drilling in Anwar and the Obama campaign are really going to harp on that quite a bit. It's interesting, because the McCain campaign, one reason they are interested in her is because she has shown that she's willing to take on big oil. In fact, she essentially raised taxes on oil companies by quite a bit, raising billions of dollars. It's an interesting story and our colleagues at "Now" on PBS took a look at it and listen to what Governor Palin had to say.
GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Oil companies don't own the resources. They have leases and the right to develop our resources for us and we share a value, partners there, because they do the producing for us. But we own the resources.
GERSH: I think she's -- you know, she's -- she's shown herself to be somewhat independent. The Obama campaign will attack there. But just one other thing I think is interesting to note that Alaskans are pretty concerned about climate change and this is a governor who worked on climate change issues which is another thing that might concern some businesses.
GHARIB: As you know, now it's McCain's turn. He's going to be in the spotlight in St. Paul next week. What do you think is going to be his key economic message that he will be sending out to voters?
GERSH: I think it's very clear that he's going to say, look, we understand that people are hurting. In particular, we understand that working class people are hurting. You're going to hear a lot about Governor Palin as a hockey mom, a mother of five who understands those kinds of things and that the maverick is back.
GHARIB: All right, thanks a lot Darren. Have a great weekend. I appreciate the update.
GERSH: Thanks, Susie.
GHARIB: We've been speaking with Darren Gersh, NBR's Washington bureau chief.
