Who's Running for President, McCain or Palin?

My one-week love affair with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP's vice presidential nominee, is officially over. She's no longer charming. Her relentless sarcasm is derogatory and mean-spirited. And, she's dangerous. The smart girl glasses are, like her, a sham, and that Fargo voice now sounds like nails on a chalkboard. To be honest, most of my previous adoration centered around my expectation that the appointment of this political lightweight would be a cancer to the ticket. Instead, I now believe she's Sen. John McCain's meal ticket. Incredibly, this election has become all about her, not him, and if Sen. Barack Obama and the Dems don't get their shit together fast and strip away the layers of this vacuous onion, Palin just might be the reason McCain wins in November.

Once again, Republicans are distracting voters away from the real issues--the war, Afghanistan, the economy, health care--and framing the entire campaign around the fact that Palin's a small town, socially conservative, diaper-juggling Walmart mom who doesn't scare them. Someone voters can feel comfortable and safe with, wink-wink. As MSNBC's Chris Matthews said Monday, "This is to me the cleverest move they've ever pulled....which is the switch from what do you want to who do you want." Matthews also believes that this tactic is rooted more in racial motivations than anything else. And he's right. The McCain camp would just love to reassure voters that their white ticket is the safer bet.

It's safe to say that Republicans are downright giddy over their Everymom. In fact, since her rousing speech last week at the RNC convention in Minneapolis, conservatives have been acting as if it's she, not McCain, who's running for president. The convention was The Sarah Palin Show. Not good for the top guy to be so embarrassingly upstaged by the former Mayor of Wasilla. It's unprecedented in modern American politics for a presidential candidate to literally rest his campaign hopes on the shoulders of his vice presidential running mate, and to change his entire message to fit her narrow positions.

But nevertheless, Republicans have been smart to elevate Palin in stature knowing just how weak McCain's prospects would be without the charismatic hockey mom on the ticket. This little arctic spitfire has taken his anemic campaign and given it new life. Her convention performance outdrew both McCain and Obama, and she's been on fire since. As proof, a new USA/Gallup Poll released Monday showed a huge bounce for the ticket, putting Grandpa John and Grandma Sarah ten points ahead of Obama and Sen. Joe Biden among likely voters. But before Republicans could really get excited, other new polls, including CNN and ABC, still showed the race as a dead heat.

Just wait. Wait until the currently sequestered Palin has to go before the national news media to answer questions pertaining to a host of domestic and global issues. Despite the intense coaching from Sen. Joe Lieberman and others, Palin's gaping knowledge-abyss will be evident. Gone will be the American flags backdrop, the cheering throngs of Kool-Aid drunken right-wingers, and the writing skills of Karl Rove and Steve Schmidt. It won't be a Wasilla press conference. She may be able to memorize some sound bytes, but she cannot and will not become miraculously adept with and acutely aware of the nuances of our various national security and economic challenges. There's a reason the campaign has so far kept her from the press: she has no idea what to say.

Back to the polls. Bounce shmounce, I say. Remember, Obama also had a ten-point bounce after the DNC convention. Now it's McCain's turn. And a week from now it'll be different yet again. Voters typically do not focus on elections until after Labor Day. The real campaign is just starting. Not only will Palin have to face the media many times over--shows like Meet the Press and Face the Nation are a must--she will also go head-to-head with Biden on Oct 2nd in the televised vice presidential debate. Can you imagine how woefully unprepared and inexperienced she's gonna look against Biden and his 37 years of solid foreign policy and domestic legislating?

Additionally, the Obama/Biden ticket will be greatly aided by the Clintons. Hillary's been out stumping quite effectively already in places like Florida, and Obama and Bill Clinton will be lunching Thursday to map out the strategy for getting Bubba fully engaged. The right can mock Bill Clinton all it wants, but he's a master campaigner and still wildly popular among Democrats, moderate Republicans and Independents. His presence on the campaign trail these next seven weeks will prove invaluable.

Stumping in the swing state of Missouri Monday, we got a glimpse of the McCain/Palin strategy in action for the anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-stem-cell research, gun-toting, carcass-skinning, evangelical creationist book-banning Palin. The Repubs know they're weak on the economy, so they had their spunky cheerleader tackle taxes, jobs, government spending, etc. But the speech was short on substance and chock full of catchy sound bytes. Just the sort of knowledge-gap that the media and Biden will shoot Dick Cheney-sized bullet holes through very soon...that is, once she's let out of the GOP safehouse.

"Our opponent, he still can't acknowledge the coming victory in Iraq," Grandma Sarah incredulously declared at the Missouri charade. Did she say victory? The coming victory? I can't wait until the press gets to ask her to (a) specifically define victory and (b) tell us just when that will occur...since she's so damned sure it's coming. Palin also engaged in revising history over her supposed "Bridge to Nowhere" opposition, which we now know was actually aggressive lobbying for the $400-million pork-barrel project. Thankfully, Obama hit back Monday, and hit hard: "I mean ya can't just make stuff up. Ya can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid."

Oh Barack, how we do hope you're right. But judging from the outcome of both the 2000 and 2004 elections, I'm not so sure.

Comments

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

WHO CARES :) VOTE BREAKIN!

[Pamk]

These are some comments made by David Frum regarding Palin - he certainly is not convinced!!

** We are talking about a particular set of decision-making skills - and there is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that Palin possesses them. Worse, from my point of view, is the assumption that because she is a conservative Christian that she therefore has intelligent conservative views on every other subject, from what to do with Fannie Mae to what to do about Iran. That's a greater leap of faith than I can make.

** This only confirms my point. George W. Bush had very slight executive experience before becoming president. His views were not well known. He won the nomination exactly in the same way that Palin has won the hearts of so many conservatives: by sending cultural cues to convince them that he was one of them, understood them, sympathized with them. So that made everything else irrelevant in 2000 - as it seems again to be doing in 2008.

** Again let me stress: I am not denying that Sarah Palin may have great skills. She may well. I am insisting that neither you, nor I, nor John McCain has any valid reason to believe that she does. This is not an argument about the attributes she lacks. It's an argument about the information we lack. I am pleading with my fellow conservatives: Please demand more and better knowledge before you commit yourselves to a political leader. That's all.

[Indie2008]

11 days ago when John McCain "rolled out" Sarah Palin, I told my wife, who is more undecided than I am, that I liked her, although I'm supporting Obama, Well, all I can say now is, " A little Sarah goes a long way!"

[PADDYWHACK]

Obama's team have to harp on McCain's infantile skirt-hugg­ing.He can't afford to campaign on his own,but this will go unnoticed unless you use GOP tactics and shove it down people's throats.

[4sovereignty]

The only government I want is, "Limited Government" as bestowed on us by our Founding Fathers. I want my individual rights, parental rights and Bill of Rights. I don't want a New World Order where we have foreign governments, unelected bodies, or the U.N. superceding the protection of our U.S. Constitutions and Bill of Rights..

I do not want Social Engineers or Elitists dictating away my freedom of choice.

I hear Obama talk about change. What change? Having government commit more legalized, unconstitutional plunder?

Maybe we should all move into communes, have the government take our paychecks as we go through the gate, live in abodes that are exactly alike, eat the same food at the same time, drive or pedal the same vehicle Share and share alike. Gee, then everyone could be absolutely equal!

Just think -- we could have Robert Redford and Hillary Clinton eating at the same table off the same biodegradable dishes.

[AnABCinCA]

McCain has created a monster. They can't campaign separately for fear that Palin's crowds will outdraw his -- that would be embarrassing.

[PADDYWHACK]

AnA,you saved me a post.You nailed it,he can never split from her to campaign on his own.

[Indie2008]

It's already too late for McCain to salvage his dignity! He's just along for the ride now, standing behind her and fiddling nervously with his ring while she gives that speech. Even If he wins it will never be about him. The attention would forever be focused on her, and her family.

[4sovereignty]

Ms. Palin has every right to chose and follow any religion she wishes. She has the right to pray in the mode she favors and feels comfortable with, whether privately or in public.

Many of you need to get the book "The Law" written by Frederic Bastiat, and also look up Congressman Davey Crockett's, "Not Ours to Give" to garner an understanding of why our Founding Fathers bestowed on us a Limited Republic, (INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS).

Sarah Palin did not graduated from an Ivy League College, but what she might lack in all of your elitist minds she's made up for in common sense, effort, ingrained and learned ability.

Since I am a Roman Catholic I don't follow they same religion as Governor Palin, but I believe in her right to practice her faith as I practice mine. Too bad that MzTexas thinks that Palin has to fit into her box according to her following comment, "She has NO credibility, she is a liar and her religious beliefs are far from mainstream Christianity or even mainstream evangelica­l."

Those I do my volunteer work with come from all walks of life, various religious and economic backgrounds and we don't point fingers at one another because we are "different" in one way or another. I would not care if a volunteer is an atheist -- because they are giving instead of looking for ways to needlessly take from another -- or looking for the means to have the government commit more "LEGALIZED PLUNDER."

[JohnDewey]

Governor Palin is a lifelong member of a fundamentalist, eschatological, Pentecostal church which is outside of the mainstream of modern Christian denominations. Further, the particular philosophy that she and her pastor adhere to is considered extreme and ill-advised even within the larger A of G Fellowship.

Stating these facts does not contradict her right to believe and to worship as she chooses. Rather, it gives the rest of us voters a pretty good indication of how she views the American tradition of separation of church and state, and, in turn, how this will impact her ability to be a member of the Executive Branch.

I don't give a rat's @ss whether she believes in glossolalia, curses and demonic possession. I also don't care what her view of the Trinity is, whether she believes in salvation by works or by faith alone, her stance on Mary's divinity or whether it's heresy to try to immanetize the Eschaton. What I do care about is the extent to which, as Vice-President, she will attempt to impose her fundamentalism on the rest of us. That, I will not abide.

[amaycatbaker]

Palin does not believe you have a right to worship how you wish. If you are not "saved" you might as well be a devil worshiper.

[c64audio]

I think John McCain should hire a food taster if he wins.

[nalubeck]

Excellent analysis of the political RNC strategy. But, what's new. The Bush Administration and RNC and Rove-clones have been using smoke-n-mirrors, and Madison Avenue marketing gimmicks for years to throw people's attention off the facts and real issues. Spin tactics (8,00 troops coming home in 6 months story well timed to prop up the "success" argument for the Bush strategy). Orchestrated crowds of supporters (crowds not identified as such rank-n-file supporters) in order to portray McCain as appealing to the masses (example, McCain's Colorado Springs post-convention appearance, The Saddleback Church crowd, Bush's appearance before active military and veteran's groups). The RNC VP protection bubble: the RNC states they vetted Palin and that's all the American public and media need to know--trust us. The RNC portrayal of Palin as mass media victim. Heck I thought she was a pit bull, gun toting, moose butchering, hockey mom who had no problem taking care of herself in public life (telling Ted Stevens and the Oil companies where they could stuff their pork and crude) or private life (God is her salvation and strength). Is their something I missed?

[mema01]

The best think we can do to quiet down the Palin noise in the short term. Don't watch the interview. Tell your friends not to watch. You will hear about it over and over. But keep the ratings low, so that ABC and other networks will not gloat over her high viewer ratings. I know it will be hard not to watch, but you will see it replayed a million times.

[Miravanguild]

You women out there who are inclined to vote for MacPalin because Obama didn't chose Hillary for his running mate or because he beat her for the nomination­..... Those of you who want to vote McCain because he chose a woman , who say it's for your daughters or it's about time a woman was chosen.. Think again... Think about your daughters, think beyond your common gender... If your twelve year old daughter get pregnant by any means, but God forbid by rape or incest, would you like her to be forced to carry that baby to term? If you agree, by all means vote for McCain and Palin... If you think preventing pregancy is just a simple matter of saying, "no.." No, without sound knowlege of biology or the emotions that make up sexual drives.. By all means vote for McCain and Palin,.... If you think your daughters can grow up to compete in an increasingly competitive world when religion is allowed to muddle science fact in the classroom.­.. Then by all means vote for McCain and Palin... If you are willing to let your daughter go out and maybe bleed and die for her country based on a mission from God... Then by all means vote for McCain and Palin...

[mema01]

Sarah Palin, as all persons who make a career from stretching (lying) the truth cannot be dumb. She may be undereducated for her position, but she is not dumb. The dems. risk great peril in not remembering that Hitler was a paperhanger. But he was smart. He was charismatic, He told people what they wanted to hear. Sarah Palin is not dumb. She is charismatic. She is smart. She tells people what they want to hear. She is dangerous!

[nalubeck]

Palin, the self described pitbull with lipstick masquerading as a hockey mom. News story today in the Seattle Times (a repeat of many such stories in many communities in the recent past): pit bulls maul 71 year old woman. What lovely imagery of pitbull Palin mauling all in her "territory" responding to instinctual cues and providing no warning. More Cowboy politics? So, we are changing from the gun toting cowboy to the out of control pitbull. That's CHANGE you can believe in! Horrah RNC and Carl Rove!

[Karisma]

McCain underestimated Palin. He pales in comparison to her now.
She will find a reason to oust McCain out eventually, so "SHE CAN BE PRESIDENT"!
It's all for the good of her country, ALASKA!

[Freesia2]

Who's running for President? Why Sarah Palin of course. McCain's plan is to march into Washington hiding behind her skirt. But then that's nothing knew is it? The Maverick has spent his career being aided by women with their support or their money. This is how the daring Maverick is used to taking Dodge City - with a petticoat posse.