Bothered, baffled and bewildered, am I. Do Democrats even begin to get the nature of the problem they are facing? Do they understand what a truly shrewd choice Palin was for McCain? If they do, why are they cooperating so willingly with the McCain strategy? The more we talk about Palin, the better McCain does. It is time, people, to STFU about Palin. She is not the nominee. She's a doofus but a useful one. She is the decoy that is allowing McCain to avoid the issues. And why does he want to avoid the issues? Because he gets killed there, that's why. All of this matters not a whit to your Palin diary writer who merely wants to show off his or her savage wit or incredulous indignation. Well, in the words of the great Dana Carvey, isn't that special?
More below.
McCain chose Palin because he correctly identified her as someone who would drive liberals nuts, and have them talking non-stop about what an awful choice she was. And he was right. All that indignation and scorn from the left served to do the one thing that McCain could not do: get his base excited and motivated to vote. You can see it in his rallies. When he appears with Palin, he draws large crowds. When she isn't there, you can hear crickets chirping. So McCain scored a necessary goal with that pick. We can't do much about the revved up GOP base now, but there are some things we can do.
- Stop talking about Palin Just STOP. You are in a hole - quit digging now! Start talking about McCain and his inability to advance a cogent agenda for this country. Stop crapping on about personality and personal history. It's all crap. It's what McCain wants you to talk about that. You know why, don't you? It's because he wins on that ground, or at least he gets pretty darned close to winning. He wants it to be about his personal story because that's pretty much all he has. The more we are drawn into that landscape, the worse we will do. So, it's time to try something new here: Be a bit more mature. Be a bit wiser. Be disciplined. Don't do exactly what his script says you should do. You can be better. Stop talking about Palin and stop with the personal attacks. They actually do nothing to help Obama and they actually are doing damage. Many of the Palin attack diaries are a form of textual masturbation. Hey, and I plead guilty to pitching i on some of these diaries with comments that were so witty I impressed the heck out of myself until I thought about it a bit more and realized that it was just like sending a dollar to McCain's campaign.
- Start talking about the issues we face and how Obama will address them. This is, of course, what Obama should now be doing. Big speeches on important issues. He shouldn't be the guy talking about lipstick on a pig. This is not some Senate race! This is a Presidential campaign that ought to be saying three big things: (a) this is where we are, (b) this is where we need to go, (c) this is how I will get you there. I want to see Obama do that. But you can do it now by writing about it and talking about it.
So what are those big things:
- Energy independence. Both candidates talk about it. Only one candidate can deliver it. Obama has to give a major speech on energy, laying out how we achieve energy independence in 10 years and fossil fuel independence in 20 years. He should be giving this speech in Austin, Texas, in the aftermath of Ike. He should have Pickens introduce him, if possible. He has to link fossil fuels to hurricanes. This is a big issue. He can point to the future and chart a course on energy that is big and bold. He has sort of done this but as part of a laundry list of things. We need an uncluttered speech that lays this out in very stark terms.
- Declining Incomes. People are anxious about the future. We all get that, and actually feel it. Obama has to explain what he will do to reverse income decline among working people. In the 1970's, people stayed in the middle class because the wife went out to work. In the 80's, they both worked longer hours. In the 90's, they started saving less for retirement. In the last 10 years, they used their home equity. Now they are maxing out credit cards. Obama has to talk about the tax burden on this vast swathe of America. He has to talk about the costs they face. He has to lay out how we got to this point and how to get out of it. It's not enough to have a policy here and a policy there. It has to be a big vision clearly laid out on where we need to be, how to get there, and why McCain's ideas will not address that problem.
- International Threats and Obligations. The world can be a dangerous place. We all know that. We cannot control everything but our goal must be to work with others to decrease the danger to civilization. We all know that Obama rejects the easy sophistry of the Islamo-phobic school of foreign affairs. If we are serious about defending western ideals and our belief in a pluralistic society, then we have to commit to policies that are likely to achieve that. Obama needs a big speech that squarely confronts exactly where we are internationally and where we need to go. He needs, in fact, to enunciate an Obama Doctrine.
These big issues must be addressed by Obama and by us on dkos in order to seize back the initiative in this campaign by forcing McCain to fight on ground that he loses on. Please resist the temptation to play on McCain's turf.