Just how desperate is the McCain campaign?
What do they think of their chances toe-to-toe against Barack Obama and Joe Biden?
The Palin selection may provide your answer to those questions because it demonstrates unambiguously that they think their only hope is a trick play: a political Fumblerooski.
For the uninitiated, "Fumblerooski" is a trick football play designed to fool a defense. It is no longer legal in high school, college or pro football. Basically, after taking the snap the quarterback quickly places the ball on the ground - intentionally fumbling. To sell the trick, the backs run to the right, and an offensive lineman (usually a guard) scoops up the ball and runs to the left. This play would usually be called when a very tough defense makes it impossible to advance the ball any other way. It is a play of desperation which exploits a defense's inclination to doubt that you would intentionally do something injurious to your cause - like fumbling.
Why would McCain call a Fumblerooski in selecting a nobody like Palin to be a heartbeat (and its a pretty dodgy heart) away from the Presidency of the United States? Good question.
Almost out of the gate, McCain's campaign has had a stink of desperation about it. It has consisted almost entirely of argumentum ad hominem with rarely a lucid attempt at substantive policy differences - or at least a truthful attempt - and with that kind of start, there is no reason to be surprised that they would try something like the Palin selection.
Why would they do something so desperate? Simple.
The Obama campaign's strategy of hanging complicity in the Bush years around McCain's neck like a rotting albatross is working and there doesn't seem to be anything the McCain campaign can do about that. They can't turn back time. The votes are on record so in spite of their best efforts to get the shit back in the horse, they find themselves defined: Agreeing with the disastrous policies of George W. Bush - a president with approval numbers only slightly higher than colon cancer - 95% of the time.
Among voters who are even a little smarter than their own anus, the connection to Bush is an insurmountable obstacle - an impenetrable defense.
What do you do early in the 4th quarter when an impenetrable defense is kicking your ass? You run a trick play to advance the ball, maybe even get a first down and hope that you can change the momentum, or at least confuse and unsettle your opponent into re-thinking their successful strategy.
Will McCain's Fumblerooski work? I don't think so. See, I know that I'm not an especially smart man - but even to a commoner like me, this stunt is as obvious as it is stupid.
I could be wrong though.
There might be enough voters out there to make a difference who agree with Palin that a woman should legally be a life-support-system for a womb, and that her most intimate and personal choices regarding the disposition of her own body should be fodder for debate my pudgy republican men and the evangelical shitheads who vote for them.
There might be enough voters out there to make a difference who are impressed with Palin's public service resume - which consists of sending the Wasilla police chief to warn a resident to stop his dog shitting on his neighbor's lawn. They might think that experience qualifies her to be one heart-beat away from literally holding the power to destroy human civilization.
There might be enough voters out there to make a difference who agree with Palin and McCain/Bush that it makes sense to trade one of the planet's few remaining pristine wilderness regions in a futile effort to pretend that oil is not ultimately a finite resource. They apparently think its a good idea to entrust this treasure to the fine folks at Exxon who were good enough to bring you Captain Joseph Hazlewood and the Exxon-Valdez.
I suppose it could work for them. Anything is possible in a country inhabited by enough stupid people to give Curious George a second term. Still, unless they can find a video of Barack Obama strangling a kitten, or find some way to over-dose the entire American electorate with thorazine in November, I'm thinking this Fumblerooski is not going to work.
I hope it doesn't work.