The Ploy and Playing of Palin
This past weekend, as I was trying for the life of me to understand what the heck the McCain camp was thinking in adding Sarah Palin to the ticket as VP, I said to my wife that the more I think about it, the more I have no doubt that no one in the McCain camp intends for her to stay on the ticket very long. I mean, this person was so extraordinarily unqualified to lead this nation that there had to be another explanation; here's what I came up with:
Last Thursday night, the Democratic convention closed with a very stirring and effective (by almost all accounts) speech by Barack Obama. Almost everyone (even many Republican commentators) agreed that the Democratic convention had been a great success, and would help launch the Obama/Biden ticket into the general election season with a sizeable head of steam. What oh what could the McCain camp do? They had to stem the tide, stop the bleeding, nip the Obama surge in the bud . . . but how?
Sure, McCain picking Lieberman, Pawlenty, Ridge, or Romney as VP the morning after Obama's speech might help, but really, would any of those picks have had the impact in terms of dominating the news cycle that the Palin pick has?? At the end of the day, they needed to change the narrative; they needed this pick. And, so it was.
Palin has since come under great scrutiny for many reasons, any one of which may -- and probably will, IMHO -- result in her eventually withdrawing from the race, citing the vindictiveness of the press (and, by extension, the awful, angry left), and the need to protect her family from the vitriole. Something along the lines of "I could not have anticipated the level of scrutiny, anger, and even apparent hatred that would have come my -- and more importantly my family's -- way when I accepted the nomination to serve as the great McCain's second-in-command, and therefore decided that it would be best for me -- and again more importantly, my family -- for me top step down as John McCain's running mate."
Palin would then step down, changing the focus of the pick from the many faults of Palin and McCain's awful judgment, to the press', and the "angry left's" single-minded hatred of anything conservative or Republican. All this would serve to dull the post-convention bounce for Obama/Biden, help further the Republican narrative about the liberal media and the hound dog press, allow McCain to appear like he cares about issues of importance to women, and yet leave him free to select one of the aformentioned white men as his "real" running mate.
All this is just a theory that helped me explain WTF McCain was thinking when he picked Palin (whose cons on virtually every subject outweighed whatever pros he might have been hoping she'd bring to the table). With Schmidt's increasingly absurd claims about the media in recent days, I am beginning to think I was right. I personally put nothing past these people.
Last Thursday night, the Democratic convention closed with a very stirring and effective (by almost all accounts) speech by Barack Obama. Almost everyone (even many Republican commentators) agreed that the Democratic convention had been a great success, and would help launch the Obama/Biden ticket into the general election season with a sizeable head of steam. What oh what could the McCain camp do? They had to stem the tide, stop the bleeding, nip the Obama surge in the bud . . . but how?
Sure, McCain picking Lieberman, Pawlenty, Ridge, or Romney as VP the morning after Obama's speech might help, but really, would any of those picks have had the impact in terms of dominating the news cycle that the Palin pick has?? At the end of the day, they needed to change the narrative; they needed this pick. And, so it was.
Palin has since come under great scrutiny for many reasons, any one of which may -- and probably will, IMHO -- result in her eventually withdrawing from the race, citing the vindictiveness of the press (and, by extension, the awful, angry left), and the need to protect her family from the vitriole. Something along the lines of "I could not have anticipated the level of scrutiny, anger, and even apparent hatred that would have come my -- and more importantly my family's -- way when I accepted the nomination to serve as the great McCain's second-in-command, and therefore decided that it would be best for me -- and again more importantly, my family -- for me top step down as John McCain's running mate."
Palin would then step down, changing the focus of the pick from the many faults of Palin and McCain's awful judgment, to the press', and the "angry left's" single-minded hatred of anything conservative or Republican. All this would serve to dull the post-convention bounce for Obama/Biden, help further the Republican narrative about the liberal media and the hound dog press, allow McCain to appear like he cares about issues of importance to women, and yet leave him free to select one of the aformentioned white men as his "real" running mate.
All this is just a theory that helped me explain WTF McCain was thinking when he picked Palin (whose cons on virtually every subject outweighed whatever pros he might have been hoping she'd bring to the table). With Schmidt's increasingly absurd claims about the media in recent days, I am beginning to think I was right. I personally put nothing past these people.
