Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Of course, the Republicans are on the attack, and I would be too if I had nothing to offer a dissatisfied public. The Obama campaign is doing the right thing: not getting sucked into the sideshow. The Democrats are staying on-message: McCain is more of the same. That's why getting caught up in the distractions is precisely what they shouldn't be doing, even though it would be emotionally gratifying to give the GOP a dose of its own medicine.
Liberals and Democrats (distinctly different groups, even if there's a nexus there) have been trapped by this before. The GOP throws out the red meat, although nothing of substance in terms of vision or policy, and Democrats are placed on the defensive -- no longer pushing their message, but responding to the attack. What Obama has done, brilliantly IMHO, is to keep his focus and turn the meme back to the failures of Republican rule and his plan to change that. The status quo cannot win on its merits, only by shifting attention away from its inability to solve the problems facing Americans. But this isn't 2000 or 2004, the dynamics are entirely different, and Obama isn't Gore or Kerry -- neither one who could be even remotely considered charismatic. He doesn't have to answer Republican charges tit-for-tat, on their terms, which would only lower him to being in their league of pettiness and divisiveness. Yes, he is an "elite," and elites don't get down in the gutter with pond scum. Bait and switch only works if the object of the scam takes the bait; Obama's not even nibbling, instead offering superior bait.
This is why the l'affaire Palin is a potential McCain masterstroke, especially since he essentially has nothing to lose (even running ahead of the Republican brand, he's still behind). It's not that McCain didn't vette Palin; it's that it doesn't matter if he did. That he was aware she came with baggage, even if serious, doesn't hurt McCain -- it helps him. She may solidify the social conservative base, but that's not terribly important because that base is now relatively small (and, even with Palin, is not going to necessarily see beyond their own shrinking paychecks, gas prices and mortgage crises which are among Obama's biggest advantages). If she can sway some disaffected Hillary supporters, fine -- but I doubt the Republicans seriously believe that will be significant. What Palin can best be is a lightning rod. Let her go on the attack; if the Democrats over-reach in striking back, maybe this wholesome-looking, articulate "hockey-mom"-next-door can play the victim (a ploy which seems to work with PUMAs, whose grievances were more imagined than real).
In the meantime, the media -- caught unaware by Palin's selection -- spends the next several weeks playing catch-up finding out who she is and chasing her myriad problems. With only two months remaining -- a relatively short time in a long election cycle in which the hard-core supporters of both candidates are fairly well defined -- the narrative becomes not the major challenges facing the nation, but the Palin sideshow. Every day spent on this distraction is a day wasted for Obama, who will win so long as voters are forced to focus on issues (since McCain has nothing to offer there, except "more of the same").
Palin is a freak show. When was the last time a major party nominated a VP candidate with so little substantive to offer and so many potential scandals, especially when -- as McCain claims -- he was aware of some of these things? It is historically unprecedented (Eagleton had to withdraw in 1972 for admitting he saw a psychologist, a fact of which McGovern was unaware, but that is peanuts compared to what's on Palin's plate). So the media and Obama supporters get entrenched in Troopergate, her lack of substantive qualifications, Bristol's pregnancy, the "Sarah Barracuda" meme, etc. and now are wholly off their message of the change America needs and the public wants.
Palin doesn't matter. Does anybody really think she's going to have a place at the public policy table -- except for some social conservative wedge issues -- when McCain is surrouned by so-called Serious senior Beltway insiders? Get real; she's about as useful as tits on a boar when it comes to offering any advice on national or foreign affairs. She's only the bait, a fishing expedition for the media -- and, the Republicans hope, Obama -- and liberal blogosphere, who can find so much to dislike about her. Whatever her other virtues, political she is a Zero -- but when you're playing McCain's zero-sum political game, one which can potentially push the Democrats into the negative.
Obama's response to her, and the other red herrings offered by the GOP attack machine, reflects his keen political instincts. Underplay her, and the ridiculous, fact-free attacks. Correct the record maybe, but then move on to Obama's post-partisan message. Biden's approach today was masterful; do nothing to seem to demean Palin on a personal basis, which is a no-win proposition for the Democrats (despite the many targets she presents), point out the RNC is fact- and substance-challenged, and then reiterate the short-list of the shortcomings of Republican rule as they effect the lives of Americans and the Obama plan to change it.
I would say to Glenn, Kos, Josh and other reasonable, sober bloggers to have a little faith -- hard, I fully understand, given recent history -- that Obama knows what he's doing. I'd only be worried if the Democrats get caught up in the Palin circus. If the Obama campaign keeps its focus on its message -- and by not getting embroiled in the distractions -- it will force the media and liberal blogosphere to adhere more closely to its narrative and less to the diversons which are Palin and the GOP attack machine. Quick-response, certainly, but retain the Robert E. Lee-like offensive-defensive strategy which has proven so effective thus far.
It's a simple question, isn't it? Why no response?
$500 million direct subsidy to Transcanada for a pipeline - a pipeline to be filled by BP and Exxon in Alaska, and emptied by BP and Exxon in Alberta's tar sand fields. There, the gas will be burned and shipped to BP and Exxon refineries in the U.S. What a great plan - backed up by $18 billion in Congressional loan guarantees.
Those poor oil companies - they really need those subsidies in a time of record profits, don't they?
And a renewable energy tax credit? Well, gosh - that would be socialism, wouldn't it?
She really is a corporate welfare queen.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
