This diary does not contain links to any published reports. This diary will not explain how McCain and Palin are liars. (Although I wish the Obama team would create an add that shows a Palin lie followed by a black screen with the word Liar in either bold Red or White. Then a McCain lie video clip followed by the same Liar screen. Repeat until you run out of add time or lies).
This diary is about my frustration with the Republican party, the Media; both television and print, and polling.
Since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the VP choice for the Republican Party ticket, the discourse has changed. McCain v Obama has become manufactured nonsense v rational though. Obviously I am in favor of a very public vetting of the ticket, especially Palin. But I am more in favor of hearing about how critical issues will be addressed by each administration.
Republican Party
I read the comments on Politico and various other online news sources. Early in the campaign, the trolls would frequently refer to Obama as an Empty Suit. I suppose that is the most you can do when you are fishing for an insult. How often did we hear that "he speaks so well?" line of conversation? Or the Rockstar rant? But none of it was really effective. Obama has tapped into something in our culture that cannot be denied.
So what do the Repblicans do? They reverse manufactor a candidate. Sarah Palin is the real empty pants suit.
- Experience - somehow this argument is irrelevent according to the talking points because she has so called Executive experience as a Governor and mayor. When did being a governor become a requirement for being president or vice president?
- Foreign Policy - you can see Russia from an island off the coast of Alaska.
- Leadership - Having 5 kids does not make you a leader. It makes you obviously fertile. There are millions of parents in this country, but that does not mean that they should be in the white house.
- Economic Policy - So the bridge was an embarrassment, but thanks for the money.
So why is Sarah Palin the VP pick? To usurp the story line. SP for VP serves a few very dubious purposes. From day one, the plan was to manufacture and thus respond forcefully to a Democratic assault laced with Sexism. Republican surrogates immediately hit the airwaves talking about SP being under fire for being a woman, a mother, a working mother, her children's personal problems, etc.
Problem is this Democratic assault is ficticious. However, most in the MSM were to timid to call them out on it. God I miss Tim Russert at times like these.
How would he have handled Lipstick Gate? Bridge to Nowhere Gate, Trooper Gate, Bush Doctrine Gate?
And let's not forget about McCain. As long as their campaign is responding to made up attacks, McCain does not have to talk about real issues that affect real people. If Rudy is a noun, a verb, and 9/11, then McCain is POW, Maverick, and . . . I was looking for a third word to complete the analogy, but there is nothing left.
Polling
Just a word about polling. There are a number of diaries about how the sample breakdown of recent polls do not reflect the actual make up of registered voters. I will not rehash this argument. Nor will I advance a conspiracy theory that the polls are close so that the media will be able to squeeze as much out of this race as possible.
Instead, I will suggest a couple of questions that should be added to polls.
- If a voter is self identified as a republican, "Are you excited about Sarah Palin? When did you first become excited? Why?
Maybe this is not a good set of questions, but my point is that the excitement about SP is also manufactored. The reports of people being exicted by the pick were coming in long before actual likely voters had their say. This is the Fake it until you Make it philosophy.
Ask yourself, which came first.