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The Good News about Sarah Palin (sort of)

Posted by TONY CAMPBELL, Columnist in At TMV, Politics.
Aug 30th, 2008 | Comments

Yesterday, I went off on John McCain over his pick for V.P., Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. However, there is an upside for McCain in his unorthodox decision; no one is talking about Obama’s speech of Thursday night.

The downside of this equation is the microscope of the right is focused on vetting his V.P. pick, instead of drilling into the lack of details provided by Obama in his grand vision of America. In fact, on Real Clear Politics.com, I found only one negative column regarding Obama’s speech and that was written yesterday (probably before the Palin speech). The same media frenzy could have been accomplished if McCain would have traveled with Palin for a day or two before the convention. That strategy would have provided a good amount or P.R. buzz before the Republican Convention AND given conservative pundits a couple of days to show any flaws or misstatements in Obama’s rhetoric.

McCain may have accomplished the goal of taking away the thunder from the lightning by limiting the impact of Obama’s acceptance speech…unfortunately, he left his defenders in a rainstorm of trying to defend his V.P. pick without providing an umbrella to keep them dry.

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GreenDreams

Not much of an upside, as you say. I think the timing actually played to Obama's benefit. As Joe Gandelman pointed out earlier, McCain's timing cut off the post Obama speech "analysis" and opining that might have "reframed" it in Punditese. Instead, the Dem Convention and Obama's speech were seen and heard unfiltered, and immediately the focus turns onto a controversial McCain move. Nice shift, Obama triumph, McCain misstep, with endless questioning. On Thursday, it was "did the speech do what it needed to?" "Yes, pitch perfect." End of news cycle. On Friday, bafflement about McCain's choice and wisdom, and dozens of "experts" brought in to dissect Palin's lack of experience and explore the questions raised on this blog. Was it desperate? Is it just pandering to PUMA's? Does this reflect the thoughtful consideration we want in a President?

stalkexpress

McCain must not have seen this local news report on Troopergate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UojMnCgqVA

elrod

Bingo! I was thinking the same thing. McCain not only stepped on Obama's post-speech buzz. He stepped on the anti-Obama refutation. And in politics that's a big mistake.

The conventional wisdom now is that Obama's speech was a total and complete success. 38 million people watched it. Everybody heard about it. And now nobody is around to challenge the conventional wisdom for the Republicans.

Panic Palin.

Shard

The addition of Palin to the ticket also causes there to be less attention, right now, on McCain's policies and perceived positive and negative points. How well she is received by the Republican convention, and by the Sunday media, will dictate how long such a buffer will last. (I see this having an interesting tale in the media for some time during the election cycle. Since Palin is an emerging household name from this development, that buffer for McCain might last a bit longer than your normal VP pick.)

Two points to also consider: (1) What effect, if any, does this have for those that were choosing between McCain and Barr? (2) If deposement occurs, would Palin step aside for a second VP pick?

I commend McCain on the fact that he chose a woman for his VP; whether or not it's the correct woman remains to be seen.

JSpencer

I predict that PFS (Palin Fatigue Syndrome) is going to set in fairly quickly - that is, unless she becomes sort of a loose cannon, which could liven things up considerably. I think this PFS will also create a moderating effect (a steadying) of Obama's lead in the polls. Then again, I could be full of beans. ;-)

casualobserver

It's great to see the left speak amongst themselves as if their opinions on Palin or McCain's pick of Palin actually had relevance to the price of tea in China. Way too soon to tell anything about uncommitted voters (the only relevant dynamic for the rest of the campaign) except that she comes out of the box with a significantly more favorable rating than Biden.

It is not known whether that will change over time or not, but it is known that the Obama committed posters here are irrelevant to the only important variable left in the election cycle.

ChrisWWW

Try to match this half of the sentence...
Way too soon to tell anything about uncommitted voters (the only relevant dynamic for the rest of the campaign)

...with the other half...
except that she comes out of the box with a significantly more favorable rating than Biden.

Shard

casualobserver:

For what it's worth, I consider myself leaning towards Obama, but still uncommitted. One doesn't commit to a candidate until they vote, after all :). Secondly, McCain's pick of VP has as much of an impact on my decision as Obama's: just another notch in the belt of learning the difference between the three (including Barr).

StockBoySF

Tony, I couldn't agree with you more.

On a more general observation on a sub-topic here... unfortunately the religious right still spreads false lies about Obama, because he's a Democrat, and those same people will vociferously support Palin contrary to any evidence...

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