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The Ultimate Trivial Pursuit Question

Posted by TONY CAMPBELL, Columnist in Arts & Entertainment, At TMV, Politics.
Sep 15th, 2008 | Comments

The first step in accepting you are an addict is to admit you are one. Therefore, I have to say that I too have been addicted to the Sarah Palin story. Unfortunately, like crack cocaine, the experience has left me depressed and I exhibit paranoid behavior towards pigs and lipstick. This (hopefully) will be my last post on this subject.

I am very disappointed in Barack Obama. For almost two years, he has been at the helm of a disciplined campaign that came out of nowhere to achieve the biggest political upset in the history of the United States. Over the last four weeks, the campaign that sunk the Clintons has been derailed by focusing on Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin is a distraction and has caused Obama to be reactionary instead of visionary. Until four weeks ago, no one outside of Alaska (or Idaho) knew anything about Governor Palin. In every election cycle, an unknown emerges and then disappears after the race is over. Does anyone remember Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot? Other than in a question on a 1990s Trivial Pursuit card, those names are rarely uttered in public.

There are approximately fifty days left in this campaign, and the Obama camp needs to admit that it has a Palin addiction as well. I have some advice for Team Obama: Just Say No. Obama should have a press conference to convey the following messages: 1) Yes, we were caught up in the Palin story, and we have been distracted; 2) We acknowledge her service to her constituents and her historic nomination; BUT this race is for the Presidency between Senator Obama and Senator McCain; 3) Going forward, we will again focus our energy on the issues that are of concern to the American people, not on Governor Palin.

No spin, no comment, no sound bites. The Obama campaign has to become a Palin-free zone. It is a waste of time, energy and resources to place the focus on Governor Palin.

In 7 weeks, the winner of this race will be the next President of the United States, and the loser will be a “Trivial Pursuit” question. In case the Obama campaign misses the point of this article…does anyone outside of Buffalo remember Jack Kemp?

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ChrisWWW

How has the Obama camp been caught up in the Palin madness? Liberal bloggers have been caught up in it for sure, but all of the ads coming out of the Obama camp are about McCain + Bush, or McCain's lying or the economy... same goes for the clips of speeches of seen.

StockBoySF

A lot of people are caught up in the Obama v. Palin madness. My pro-Bush brother (yes, even today), his wife and their friends all see it as Palin (being the hard-charging woman she is) beating back Obama, the liberal tax-raising nut who is going to turn the nation into an Islamic state. (Mind you my brother, his wife and friends are all college-educated and intelligent people.)

Many people do think of this as a race between Obama and Palin, with Palin winning.... I guess McCain just can't beat Obama so he brought his "secret weapon", Palin. :)

I think the ads from Obama have been Obama v. McCain, but maybe Obama DOES need to attack Palin more simply because that's where all the current enthusiasm is for the Republican ticket. Obama's ads against McCain are not effective because those ads are going after his opponent, McCain, and not his opponent's strength, Palin.

JSpencer

I wish reading from the authors of the US Constitution was required study for all Americans. They foresaw so many of these situations and gave direct and pertinant advice for dealing with them. For example:

"Shake off all the fears and prejudices, under which weak minds
are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to
her examination every fact, every opinion.

To open the doors of truth and to fortify the habit of testing
everything by reason, are the most effectual manacles we can rivet
on the hands of our rulers to prevent their manacling the people."

Thomas Jefferson

Rovian politics depends on fear and ignorance. I have no doubt the founding fathers would have considered Rove to be a parasite on democracy - as well as those who subscribe to his practices. We all know that freedom requires eternal viglilance, but it also requires healthy minds and hearts.

Mike_P

I can't think of many times the Obama campaign has acted as if distracted by Palin, and certainly not Obama himself. He's responded - when asked - with something along the lines of "she's a smart politician, and has excited the Republican base." All the Obama ads I've seen over the last few weeks have almost exclusively focused on McCain. I can think of one ad that included McCain and Palin, with her clearly secondary. Maybe I missed something, who knows. I have seen a couple of groups not associated with Obama come out with ads specifically targeting her, and a whole lot of bloggers posting about her, but very little fire from the campaign itself.

I'd like to see some specific citations, links, etc. that support the overall view of the Obama campaign being distracted by Palin.

casualobserver

Great Obama gaffe today..........."If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily," Obama said.

JSpencer

Mike, you make a good point. So much of this is a false narrative. She is more of a distraction to the right at this point than the left. In other words, she is wearing thin already, which isn't going to be good news for McCain in the near future.

pacatrue

That is an amusing gaffe, Casual.

Marsh

"Until four weeks ago, no one outside of Alaska (or Idaho) knew anything about Governor Palin. In every election cycle, an unknown emerges and then disappears after the race is over. Does anyone remember Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot?"

Hmmm . . .
I remember waking up at about 2:30AM, the TV was on in the bedroom and they had just called the election for Jesse Ventura. No one took Jesse seriously here either. First the local media laughed, they were so certain he wouldn't garner more than a handful of votes. Then they ignored him in the debates - no one who was anybody took his candidacy seriously. That ignorant rube, pftt., who did he think he was. People, other nobodies, who had never voted turned out to vote that day and when they closed the polls at 8:00pm, there were still some nobodies waiting patiently just so they could vote for Jesse. Ironically, he seems to have forgotten that now.

CitizenKang

Tony, while I disagree that the Obama Campaign proper has been suffering a Palin addiction, it certainly has been rife among the press (of course) as well as the liberal blogosphere, including yours truly.

In truth Sarah Palin is only symptomatic of the problems I have with the McCain candidacy.

Like many here I once admired John McCain's apparent honor and integrity. But for reasons best known to himself he has decided to abandon the persona grown through years of public service and succumbed to the blandishments of the worst elements of the GOP attack machine.

By choosing Governor Palin as his Veep John McCain has demonstrated that he is either unserious about the job of being president, or, he is delusional.

A serious John McCain would have recognized that as a 72 year old man with a history of melanoma, his VP would need to be someone who, in cold-blooded fact, needs to be someone who is as ready to assume the presidency as anyone can be on "day 1".

Sarah Palin is a virtual antithesis of such a person.

The other possibility is that John McCain is delusional: he simply doesn't believe he's going to die.

Either way, he's unfit to serve and so, as I said, Sarah Palin is only a symptom, John McCain is the disease.

vwcat

Tony, Obama has not been focusing on Palin. The media has been obsessing and Obama has been nailing McCain but, the media ignores this and is trying to make this an obama v. Palin thing.
Wake up and watch cspan or youtube and you will see that it is a media myth about Obama focusing on Palin.
And that because they want to relive the Hillary v. Obama thing all over again.
As for his not doing much, again the media ignores this. he has put out ads constantly and attacking McCain on the trail.
You need to stop being such a sucker for the media spin and do some real investigating on your own.
I really hate the way media is spins and twists and tries to create false storylines.

David_W

Yes I remember Jesse Ventura. He gave a good speech at Ron Paul's 'Rally for the Republic' a few weeks ago. I also remember that he recently paid a visit to Arizona, did a few interviews while there, had a book signing, and gave a couple good speeches while there. I'm also looking forward to the possibility of Jesse running for president in 2012, as I remember Ventura strongly stating that he will run if he "sees what he needs to see" (in a few years) to make it worth it for him to run in 012. I also remember recently seeing Ventura twice on Larry King Live, twice on Hannity and Colmes, and twice on the Howard Stern show, among numerous other programs.

If you don't "remember" any of these things, Tony Campbell, then you havn't been paying very good attention.

Anyway, simply search jesse ventura on youtube if you would like to listen and watch some good and recent stuff by jesse ventura

take care

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