She passed the test.
Sarah Palin – whose name instantly became a household word (clever move by McCain) – passed the test. With flying colors. Hit it out of the park. Nailed it. It was electrifying. The only problem is, it was the wrong test.
There can be no doubt she did an amazing job of delivering a hard hitting speech someone else wrote for her. She and it were sarcastic, nasty, undermining and disrespectful. It was also clever, as the Right is wont to be. Maybe it was even masterful. But delivering a speech – even masterfully - is not the same as qualifying to be vice president.
Our job now, in addition to working our asses off for the Obama campaign right up to the very last second, is to say over and over publically that YES, she passed the speech-making test, but she FAILS the qualification test. She FAILS to know about or understand issues facing Americans every day, and it seems she FAILS to care about them.
Don’t waste time talking about her daughter or whose baby the baby is. The McCain campaign says this election is not about issues. That’s our cue to make it about issues for those who don’t realize it. When someone says how great she is, ask that person about his own life – does he have health insurance? And if he does, has it been getting more expensive every year? How’s his mortgage? Anyone he knows in Iraq? Does he think the rich should get tax cuts? What about energy costs? Can he afford college for his kids? How are his investments doing? Does he know for sure the government is not reading his mail? Etc.
Say she and John McCain fail to offer ideas for solving the problems Americans face every day.
This is our struggle for liberation from the grip of the Right’s mind game and we’re all in it together. Eyes on the prize.