In order to achieve this, they first had to undermine his candidacy themselves. So with the judicious use of comments from their media puppets like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, et al., they planted the seed of doubt within McCain's own mind. They took his manic desire to be president sometime before he died, and, using that as a cudgel, forced him to accept their conditions and rules if he wanted them to back him full force. And in one of the most egregious acts of political cynicism, looked at the actuarial tables and decided that maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all. If McCain wouldn't be Bush for another four years than maybe his successor running mate would.
So off they went on their search for the perfect empty vessel. And their efforts were quickly rewarded. They managed to find someone as vacuous, vapid, and feckless as 'W' himself. And he had the "Everyman" creds that Bush always lacked including numerous children, marrying his high school sweetheart, and being a shining exemplar of the American success story. But he did have a few negatives which made him an easy target for the Democrats and the media.
To be kind, he wasn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier. He had zero, zip, nada foreign relations experience. He had an extremely limited grasp of politics outside of the frozen confines of his home state. He also had a history of vindictiveness towards anyone who got in his way or contradicted him. He had spent most of his 1 3/4 years as governor lobbying Washington for financial "earmarks". And he had been an early proponent of the "Bridge to Nowhere" fiasco. In addition, he was embroiled in a scandal and possible criminal activity having been accused of using his influence to extract vengeance against his sister's ex-husband at the heart of the so-called "Trooper-gate" investigation.
To put it mildly, the Republicans had one helluva selling job on their hands. They had to convince a majority of voters that Sam Palin was fit to be a "heartbeat (or in McCain's case a melanoma) away" from the presidency. So they cranked up the noise machine, rolled him out in a big production number worthy of Ringling Brothers at their convention and generally sold the sizzle not the steak. They kept him carefully scripted and on message. Never let the press within shouting distance and put a total embargo on any press conferences or interviews. To do so would risk letting the cat out of the bag...he really was unqualified to be vice-president let alone president of the United States.
And once the fascination with this 21st century version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington began to wear off, the questions of his competency rose quickly as did the doubts among voters.
Now people in the media and elsewhere were openly discussing Palin's lack of experience and knowledge using such words and phrases as politically unsophisticated, not very bright, slow-witted, intellectually challenged, fundamentally incoherent on issues of governance and policy. In other words, dumb as a bag of hammers. And if the candidate was really a Sam Palin, he would be considered fair game in the political arena and the Dems and the media would be all over him like flies on you-know-what.
But you see, Sam is really Sarah. And woe betide anyone who dares to attack this woman in such vicious, malicious and blatantly sexist fashion.
See that's the other side of the "sexist" coin. And the Republicans are playing it for all it's worth.
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