I've been losing sleep over this election, like I would guess that many of you have, and had a thought about Palin and her place in the election that I thought that I would share...
This is the first diary that I have written, so I apologize in advance if I am breaking any kind of style or format protocols.
This whole Palin choice has been bothering me--a lot. Not the fact that she was chosen, but the fact that so many people just blindly fell in love with her. Maybe not even her, but the IDEA of her.
Then I thought back to the 2004 convention speech that Obama gave. After watching that speech, I turned to my husband and told him that Obama was going to be President in 2008. It was an immediate, visceral reaction on my part. Over the past four years (or I guess more like the past 2 since the election started), I have had the priveledge of getting to "know" Obama better through watching him navigate the shark infested waters that are our political process. I watched with baited breath as a few of the "scandals" broke across the Internet and into the mainstream media, and then exhaled when Obama emerged with grace from each one, still intact, still with the ideas and ideals that made me believe in him all those years ago.
I know, however, that there are millions and millions of people who simply do not see in Obama what I do. Maybe they have a hot-button issue that they differ with him on and can't get over. Maybe they are skeptical of anything that a politician says and don't believe that it can be real. Maybe they can't bring themselves to place their trust in a black man. Whatever the reason, they are not on board.
A lot of people found that passion for a candidate in Hillary, and I understand why there are still lingering feelings of anger directed at anything that her supporters perceive as being the reason why she lost. I get that. I think about how I would feel if Obama had lost in the primaries. But I, like the vast majority of Clinton supporters, would be the good foot soldier that Bill Clinton asked us all to be in the past in his now famous quote:
"In the primaries you fall in love, and in the general, you fall in line".
But what about all of those other voters who never got to have their Obama or their Hillary? Certainly the Republican field has provided nothing remotely resembling the caliber of candidates that the Dems have fielded. But even worse, the Republicans had failed to field anyone who could elicit the viceral reaction that both Clinton and Obama did--until now.
Sarah Palin is that candidate. People see her and "get her". They are so desperate to feel the excitement over a candidate that the Dems have had over the past year and a half that they are running to her, warts and all, in order to suck in some of the aura that they feel coming off her. No foreign policy experience? Who cares! Values different from mine? Who cares! It's like in high school when a really good looking new person moves in halfway through Junior year and everyone wants to get to know them. Obama supporters are like the people that already have boyfriends or girlfriends, sure they check the person out, but they can look at them with a clear head and see why they are not perfect. We all already have our prom date.
The Republicans are taking a calcaulated risk hiding her from the media. It's obviously their attempt to keep the stars in the voters eyes as long as possible--only 60 more days. It's a smart move. Who wouldn't want to keep that honeymoon phase going as long as they can?
The Obama camp has to tread carefully. Nobody wants to be the one that ruins the dream for those who have fallen in love with the idea of Sarah Palin. The media not having access to her, combined with the Republincans pushing to discredit all of the stories about her as "smear" make this one a real challenge. It's going to come down to the debates, and to us, to gently wipe the stars from peoples' eyes to them see her for who she really is...and is not. Or, even better, we just keep on doing what we have been doing for months and months--register voters and get the turnout of people who are more concerned with their own economic prediciment, or the environment, or with the separation of church and state than with a high school crush.