Palin's Diversion

I said I would wait a week before commenting on the Palin VP choice. I don’t see any need to talk about what has already been revealed about the Bridge to nowhere scam, as well as the rest of the Alaskan Arctic fairy tales--hunting moose, Russia’s neighbor, and so forth. What’s really important here is to understand the strategy.

The McCain campaign was confronted with an inability to wake up the Republican base primarily because the base didn’t trust him. He did have a record way back when he really was a “maverick” going his own way on many issues like illegal immigration. The right wing just didn’t trust him. Now the campaign is in trouble. So what to do? They decide to bring in Steve Schmidt, a Karl Rove protege. (Bush’s nickname for Rove is “Turd Blossom.” Very appropriate, especially if you leave out “Blossom.”) McCain at this point is thinking of naming Lieberman as his running mate. Schmidt, Limbaugh, et al go berserk. They say, “You can’t do that. You’ll lose the whole right wing crowd as well as the election.”

Meanwhile, Limbaugh has been promoting the idea of the Governor from Alaska for VP. A right wing darling, she even believes in intellegent design. She’s against choice. The right wing will love her. Far more important, it will refocus the whole campaign off McCain and onto the Vice Presidential nominee.

That was exactly the strategic move, and so far it’s working. The Schmidt strategy is to make any questioning of Palin’s ability to be VP look anti-feminist. Wow! Republican feminist fighters. This is equal to Rove’s brilliant idea of WMD destruction as a way to go to war with Iraq. Rove’s influence during the 7 years of the Bush administration is one of deceit, lies and division. I don’t recall anyone in my 70 years of observing our politics that has created so much distrust and division as this guy.

Obama has one major task ahead of him if he is to win this election. He has to make crystal clear that, if we elect McCain and Palin, we get four more years of exactly what we have had for the last seven. Bush has one of the lowest approval ratings of any President. Obama needs to remind the country that McCain’s voting record has been 95% in support of Bush. Don’t leave him off that hook. The people are fed up with the Bush, Rove crowd. That is the issue, not the lady from Alaska. She’s a very very clever bait that we should not fall for.

Thank you Kate N.H.W.Y.