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Why Palin IS Relevant (Temporarily)
With all due and considerable respect for those who urge us to forget about Sarah Palin and focus immediately and exclusively on John McCain, they're wrong.
In the long run, yes, we must focus on McCain exclusively. That time is not quite upon us, though it must come within the next week to 10 days.
For the moment—and I stress the temporary nature of this advice—Sarah Palin is a valuable topic of criticism. Don't let up on her this week.
It's absolutely true that McCain and Obama are at the top of their tickets and that the race will turn on this contest as opposed to the bottom of the ticket. It's true that in the last 40 days of the campaign, we must hammer McCain with every thread we post. And we should do it on the major issues that give Obama the advantage: change, the economy, health care, the economy, Iraq, etc.
For now, however, McCain is using Palin as a shield. And she is an effective one only because the truth about her has not sunk in. We need to focus on her until the shield cracks.
As long as McCain is able to prop up his campaign with the theme of two reformers for the price of one, his Dynamic Duo narrative will win too many votes±. Too many white female votes, in particular.
The fact that McCain could die in office to leave Palin president may repulse us, but it is not an uncomfortable thought for many swing voters. The need to be made uncomfortable.
The more Palin is exposed, the more her choice exposes McCain's poor judgment. The more her record receives a dose of daylight, the more voters who rushed to her support will recoil from the ticket.
The Republicans won't acknowledge the truth until it's forced down their throats. And the media will abandon the subject if we just ignore Palin. Not every journalist is a Barbara Walters.
Give Sarah hell for a few more days. Er, I mean, tell the truth about her.
Then teach McCain the meaning of war.
Comments (27)
I think this election is over and even in Congressional races the Republicans are looking happier by the day.
The challenge of what to do with Palin that you discuss comes from a simple misunderstanding of her role on the ticket.
Obama was attacked on inexperience so hard that it seems the blogs and his own campaign believed the charges leveled against them. That's why they picked Biden - to protect themselves against charges of inexperience.
When Palin was picked, it was inevitable that the same meme would be played back against her - because everyone bought into "inexperienced Celebrity".
But then the dust settles, we will realize that Palin is nothing but a younger version of John McCain, who just happens (luckily for him) to be more socially conservative than he is.
Therefore, you have two parts of the tickets running on the same message. This in glaring contradiction to Democrats where one is running on change, the other is running on experience.
That's the reason Obama is in a bind: McCain/Palin are the same and by focusing on one he exposes himself to the other.
On the merits of election campaigning, this election will be remembered as a brilliant example of campaign strategy.
The only way Obama can continue to make sense is by focusing on McCain/Palin, not on one of them separately.
But the problem is that he has very little to say in the way of convincing voters:
- he blemished his record by moving to the center after the primaries and miscalculated
- he cannot just go on accusing them of lying, that makes him look desperate and lost
- his "change" mantra has been stolen by the ticket who is making a more convincing argument about it.
His only hope at this point is a mistake from McCain/Palin and the fabled "ground game".
September 13, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
This point above all else is why Palin must be brought down. Because once her "reformer" image is revealed as the sham it is, she takes McCain's theme of change down the toilet with her, allowing Obama to claim clear title to being the agent of change.
September 13, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Except that you don't do it by running ads showing McCain/Palin to be some kind of evil doers. It doesn't ring true anymore. They are popular and liked better than Obama and yesterday's AP poll says Palin has more experience than Obama has.
September 13, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not sure what ads you're referring to here, lalo. As for the polls, that trend can only be reversed by showing Palin is a habitual liar and should have been tossed out as mayor for her malfeasance.
September 13, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree because the voters have tuned out the media. 68% of them think its biased, and the majority of those think it's pushing Obama.
So any kind of de-crowning will take a very very long time.
In the meantime, Obama is not telling people why he is better - and it's not the same as saying McCain is worse.
September 13, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a false choice, lalo. A straw man argument. Obama has to get his message out, yes. We, his surrogates and Biden have to take the shine off Palin a while longer. The press is a variable beyond our control.
September 13, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
First off, a False Dichotomy and a Straw Man distortion are 2 different things.
Second, what assertion are you referring to?
September 14, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lalo's argument that Obama ads can't show McCain/Palin as "evil doers" is a straw man argument he later amplifies into a false dichotomy. Got that?
September 14, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nope. I can't see it. Enlighten me, wouldja?
September 14, 2008 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lalo, this is conjecture. I expect better of you. I continue to be baffled by how you seem to, if you pardon the expression, be clinging to
(Not to mention Palin actually is completely unprepared for the job and that McCain's is probably the single most irresponsible VP decision in history. Who picks a person they have spoken to for an hour, ever and on top of that, completely failing to vet the person!)
Blemished his record with whom? Who are these people? The left? The right? The martians?
Actually, yeah, he can go on pointing out that McCain and Palin lie, right up to the point when they stop lying.
For the sake of the argument, let us say that Obama did not point out that McCain is just making stuff up. How would that help? How should Obama deal with it? Normally I would not press the point, but you seem so certain that this approach is wrong that you must know what the right one is.
Why is McCain's argument "more convincing?" As you indicate here, the facts of the issue (i.e., their respective records) are on Obama's side--even if you count Palin for McCain. How is John McCain convincing you? Surely not by lying?
But, surprise, I actually agree with you:
John McCain is the candidate most likely to bring change! It is because the last time he went to the store instead of paying his servants to do feed him, Butterscotch Swirls still cost a penny a piece.
September 13, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could you please point out the last election Republicans won because the facts were on their side?
September 14, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Could you please finish reading the question?
September 14, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, what did I leave out?
September 14, 2008 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let me put it a different way. If facts are relevant to elections, how did Bush get 2 terms?
September 14, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
McBush picked Palin because they thought she would be as accomplished a liar as McBush.
Mission accomplished!! LOL
September 13, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The hand-wringing premised on the assumption that Rove Can Do No Wrong is pretty pathetic. It looks McCain picked a disaster of a running mate ... so it must be that Rove/McCain is playing us! She must be great!
The attack should be focused on McCain.
Palin is the most visible evidence of the fact that McCain would be a horrible president.
Attacking Palin has forced McCain to start lying in ads and lying in speeches. It's forced him to lie so much that the MSM is starting to notice.
What better attack on McCain do you want?
I saw people saying that Obama gave a wonder speech on habeas corpus the other day, but it got little attention because everyone just wanted to talk about blatant lies from McCain/Palin being exposed and how McCain is being called a liar by some of the media he used to have in his pocket.
Habeas corpus is hugely important, and especially now after everything the Bush administration has done, and in view of everything a McCain/Palin administration would do to to damage those rights.
But the best way to set things straight about habas corpus is to encourage more and more people and more and more media outlets to see how desperate McCain has become. Blatant lies about things that are easily checked, and he keeps repeating those lies long after people have started noticing that he's lying.
Why? Because if you stripped away the lies, his choice of Palin wouldn't even look good to much of the GOP base. He's put himself in a position in which his best option is to lie and hope he can keep up the facade of lies for six more weeks. His other option, dumping Palin, would be even more disastrous for him. So he lies. And lies. And lies. But only as long as people keep pressing him to answer the questions he has to lie about.
Focus the attack on McCain, and focus the attack on McCain's weakest point. That weakest point is his selection of Palin as a running mate and facade of lies he's had to construct to try to hold that choice together.
September 13, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Q: What's one very important thing that his choice about Palin reveals?
A: Who his choices for the Supreme Court are likely to be like: pro-"life", pro-creationism/"intelligent" design, pro-shooting animals from airplanes, anti-rape victim, etc.
September 13, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well there you are. Thought you had left us. What are you doing up on that rock Poindexter your going to hurt yourself....:) laughs
September 13, 2008 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh sorry..."you are" going to hurt yourself
September 13, 2008 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
He was on the Appalachian Trail. No doubt still soaking his feeet
September 13, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
*Throws a rock*
September 13, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Though one hates it, one has to admire the way the repugs attack their opposition's strengths and turn them into a weakness. We've seen how it works.
Seems to me we should be lifting their strategy and that doesn't mean running away from Palin but taking her on and turning her into a weakness.
What I don't get is how alone & isolated Obama seems. The McCain campaign doesn't just have their people on the ticket out there - they have stunningly aggressive surrogates everywhere with coordinated messages.
Where's Biden? Many of us thought he'd be a great attack dog. He seems to be asleep in his kennel. Where are all the other top surrogates?
September 13, 2008 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's been awesome. She really is a gift to us because she really is the worst political mistake in our history.
And it's put 5000 cracks in the glass bubble around John McCain's supposed honor and integrity and "mavericky-ness."
It will all turn at the right moment back to the head of the ticket, I think, anyway.
Right now I'm enjoying watching our media act like real journalists.
September 14, 2008 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
The reason Palin is relevant is that she is a proxy for McCain's character and judgment, and because sometimes vice presidents are, tragically, promoted.
Thanks Rip McCord for making the point.
The McCain/Palin ticket also shows the split in a broken Republican party between religious provincialists and ehh, the libertarian type Ron Paul supporters. I don't think criticism of Palin will sway the fundamentalist base, but the question is can it sway the aRon Paul types NOT to vote for McCain.
Maybe all this will be irrelevant if Obama's famed ground game brings out enough Democratic votes.
September 14, 2008 3:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am a big-time Joe Biden fan. (No surprise to anyone who has paid attention to my posts.) Yesterday, in discussing this whole situation with a friend (if full voice, in public), I heard myself say "Look, if 'my guy,' Joe Biden, had won the nomination and selected this person to run as his VP, I would not be able to vote for him -- she is that inept and that frightening to me." .... and realized it was true. After seeing her ABC interview, the top of the ticket is irrelevant: just the chance that she could be the 'leader of the free world' is so horrifying it doesn't matter what we would gain from the leadership of the presidential candidate, no matter who he or she might be. --- It isn't that she's inexperienced (which she is), it's that she doesn't have any instinct for honesty or reflection or information-gathering. That is too great a risk to tolerate.
The ONLY thing that is relevant about John McCain is that he chose to present us with this risk. He could be the best candidate for president this country has ever seen (and I know some genuinely believe that and I could have believed it once upon a time), but that means nothing anymore. We cannot afford to have Palin next-in-line and his decision to put her there is all that matters.
September 14, 2008 9:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're right, that's very relevant. To us. But we're not undecided.
What do you think is relevant to people in the center?
September 14, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Sarah Palin is the best damn political advertisement for independent voters ever.
She's the best thing we've got to get voters to see what is wrong with McLame.
September 14, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
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