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...issues aren't the issue here. What actually happens (and as a Republican I'm painfully aware of this and of the fact that Democrats remain painfully unaware) that issues take a back seat in politics to impressions and symbolism. It's an impressionist art form, American politics, and packaging, the impression, the way the thing looks before you pry it out of its clear plastic container and throw away the colorful cardboard in back, is what gets voters in the gut. It's sad, it's wrong, but it's a fact, and the only way to disarm the McCain/Palin ticket is to resort to our own (and I say "our" as a virulent opponent of everything my party currently has to offer) manipulation of the opposition's packaging job.
People do vote with their gut, and their gut isn't guided by issues. To think is, needless to say, important, and should be enocouraged at all times; that being said, the Big Lie can only be tipped over by a Really Big Truth, and not about issues, but about the overall perception of the target candidate. We (those of us who are actually concerned about issues) need to attack the opposition on its weaknesses, not on the issues we rightly consider important. If we do not take this traditionally Republican approach we may not have an opportunity to deal with the actual issues, because they will have done it to us again while Democrats and those who want to think they are operating on the supposedly more elevated plane of the Democratic party, have been too busy preaching to our choir yet again.
The Really Big Truth has to be ugly, too. It won't do to simply point out that Sarah Palin, for instance, has a "thin resume" or a pregnant, unmarried daughter. What needs to be pointed out are things like this: the Great Admonition of the religious right, for which Palin was chosen anyway, is a Just Say No approach to sex. Never mind there isn't a sane, normal teenager alive who can Just Say No. That's the party line, and that's where the Palins dropped the ball as parents (and no, I don't really believe that, but I also don't believe abstinence is a realistic answer to the problem). Further, while Bristol Palin should be left alone by the media and the political combatants, she won't be, and the matter of her being put in the spotlight at such a difficult time in her own life does require pointing out. The fact that her mother, her father, John McCain and the whole gang of idiots behind this ticket would dare to place her in this position does need to be exploited, because it now is an issue, and it is also totally symbolic: symbolic of something horribly wrong not with the potential voting base, but with the people pandering to them. We have to make the entire show look far more unsavory than anything McCain et al can possibly smear onto the Obama/Biden/Democratic ticket. It is no longer enough to simply argue these people are stupid, because those who would vote for them also are stupid, and at least the handlers know this, know the impression is what counts, and know how to make a lemon and make lemonade -- if we let them.
No question McCain/Palin is a lemon. However, unless we rise to the occasion and point out every turd in that punchbowl, we may be surprised to find ourselves in the very same situation we've found ourselves in for the past eight years.
It's no longer enough to have the superior candidate: we need also to have the superior Machiavelli in our corner. We need a Democratic answer to Karl Rove, and Rove knows issues is not what's won the past two elections.
Yes, the RNC is playing as I write this, and it appears absolutely pathetic and ridiculous, but it did the previous two times these clowns got together also, and it turned out as it did because those of us who care about the actual issues couldn't be persuaded to set the issues aside for a moment and deal with the impressions instead. We have a golden opportunity here. Let's not blow this by thinking we should win simply because we're right. That would be very, very wrong, and it could be downright tragic.
No mercy, no quarter, no deference to McCain's human shield. We play to win or we could, once again, lose. If we do, we may never have this opportunity again.
