- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The dilemma the campaign has about how to deal with the sudden emergence of this political superstar comes down to this: it possibly can't ignore her, but going after her directly could easily backfire. If anything, the past week has shown that Palin wears a similar coat of Teflon as Obama. Just as many of Obama's opponents suddenly found themselves accused of playing the race card, many of Palin's supporters have been quick to accuse Dems of outrageous sexism in the frontal assault on Palin's record and family. And responding to each one of her volleys only gives her more prominence in the race than the Obama team would prefer. "I suspect the Obama campaign will let that process unfold without directly engaging Palin," says Thomas Mann, a presidential historian at the Brookings Institution.
Still, given her attacks on Obama Wednesday night, his campaign will have a hard time resisting the urge to respond head on. Many observers had assumed that the choice of Palin would effectively take the McCain campaign's experience argument off the table. But the Republicans have shown no such reluctance, continuing to claim that Palin's eight years as a small-town mayor and two years as Alaska Governor make her more qualified than Obama with his seven years in the Illinois Senate and three years in the U.S. Senate — or even Biden with his 35 years in the U.S. Senate.
The Obama folks, however, seem to have settled on a strategy of downplaying Palin's lack of experience in favor of attacking her bigger claim to fame — her reputation as a maverick, non-partisan reformer. The campaign is working to link her to Washington and paint her with the same label they've given McCain — more of the same, or a Bush third term. They're even talking up her political skills these days. "She couldn't have been more of a Washington politician than she was last night," Axelrod says. "She played the typical slash and burn role and I think she did it incredibly skillfully; she's very deft at throwing the bombs."
The Obama campaign has a lot less margin for error than Reagan did in 1984, and it knows that. So while it is quick to point out inaccuracies in Palin's record — her claim that she firmly opposed the so-called Bridge to Nowhere and other wasteful Washington earmarks — the campaign is primarily relying on the public and the media to press Palin. Answers may be a long time coming, though, if McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace is to be believed. She suggested on MSNBC Thursday that the media has been so unfair to Palin that it doesn't deserve a chance to interview her, and that all anyone will see of Palin will be her public speeches. The Obama campaign wasted little time in latching onto this: "I assume the American people are going to demand that she account for her own record and for John McCain's agenda," says David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.
One place Palin won't be able to hide is during her one vice-presidential debate with Biden on October 2. The conventional wisdom has been that Biden is going to have to tread very carefully in how he engages Palin, for fear that he will be accused of being condescending and bullying towards a female politician. That concern still exists, but Palin's tough tone in her speech may make it slightly easier for Biden not to pull any punches. Indeed, it promises to be as intriguing a confrontation as any of the presidential debates.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1838959,00.html
