Bad Playhouse

[Daveparts]

Bad Playhouse
By David Glenn Cox


I was working on an article critical of the media’s handling of the Democratic Convention. About the right-wing media pundits sitting in all the anchor chairs on most all of the networks, basically throttling the Democratic convention, critiquing and downplaying any positive moments. I wondered to myself why the media was making such a big deal over Obama not offering Hillary Clinton the Vice Presidential nomination.

They cast it in such a light as to make a thimble throw a shadow ten feet tall. I wondered if Hillary Clinton even wanted the Vice Presidential nomination in the first place. Lyndon Johnson didn’t want it; he was Senate Majority Leader so why would he trade that to attend funerals? But every day the media kept at it; would he pick Hillary? Then, after picking Joe Biden, the media’s angle became how he had done her wrong. The media being the media, even when there is no story they will generate one out of thin air.

No one in 2000 asked why George W. Bush didn’t pick John McCain as his Vice Presidential running mate. Every day of the convention Hillary Clinton’s people issued statements saying that there was division between her and Barack Obama. When Hillary made her endorsement speech, Fox News annalist and the world’s only talking, embalmed corpse, Charles Kruathamer, insisted, “I don’t believe it, come November she’ll vote for McCain.” They were all so certain that Obama had done Hillary wrong, and I guess it was the overbearing way the story was pushed that piqued my curiosity.

Then, Friday morning, all the news channels were full of the same news leaks, so many news leaks that it reminded me of 9-11. There was a narrative going on. A story was being publicized in dribs and drabs. It wasn’t going to be Mitt Romney, but Joe Lieberman was with the campaign. Every ten minutes a new leak, always during the broadcast and never during the break. The publicists were working overtime and then came the announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. I thought to myself, son of a bitch! This is nothing but pro wrestling!

Barack the Bad has done Hillary wrong and now Macho Man John McCain was going to jump over the ropes and stand up for American womanhood. Of course there isn’t a Republican Hillary Clinton so they had to make one up. A conservative with pro-life credentials and a life-long NRA membership. She also has a young Down syndrome child to go with McCain’s five years as a POW, so they make the perfect pity committee.

The theatrical motivation is clear and reassuring. The McCain campaign is so certain that it cannot win on its own that it is going for the Hail Mary play, right from the get-go. They believe that their only chance to win is to split the Democratic vote. As I watched the McCain/Palin smack down this morning, I noticed in the crowd the same, tired, Republican handmade signs. They are always made on the same stock paper, and always in the same four colors. The font is handmade but professional, always the right size for television, with middle-of-the-road messages: “Soccer Moms for McCain,” “Hillary Supporters for McCain.” Of course you are. Theatrical scenery, the culmination of several weeks' worth of work.

The choice of Palin is all part of the plan. Not John McCain’s plan, he’s just a good soldier who follows orders. She was picked by the RNC several weeks ago and the Republicans, by manipulating the cooperative corporate media, will attempt to make this appear unstaged and unscripted, when in fact it’s as corny and campy as a Hulk Hogan wrestling match. Not that the Democratic Convention wasn’t stage managed, of course it was. But what you saw was what you got. Obama picked Biden to strengthen his foreign policy credentials, but the RNC picked Sarah Palin as the white knightress on a quest to right the imaginary wrongs done to American women.

Of course McCain will take the blame; this is an example of his decision-making skills! A woman with no credentials to even remotely qualify her for the Vice Presidency running with a man 72-years-old. Any pragmatic person is going to ask themselves, is that wise? With the average male life expectancy at 78 and then factor in five years of bad diet and limited exercise, it almost sounds like a Goldie Hawn movie premise. A soccer mom plucked from obscurity to lead America. As Hollywood it’s laughable, but as reality television it’s frightening.

But it is insightful to see just how far the Republican campaign and corporate media will work together to produce a bad playhouse scenario of Uncle John’s Cabin and how John the Good will rescue Eliza from Barack the Bad. But I don’t think American women are that dumb, to accept a Sarah Palin as a Hillary Clinton replacement. Or to paraphrase the late Lloyd Benson, “I know Hillary Clinton and you’re no Hillary Clinton.”

But stop and ask yourself, just how dumb do they think we are? That this is how they run their campaign, through subterfuge and stagecraft. Of make believe scenarios of good guys and bad guys, of heroes and villains. I trashed the article that I was working on about media coverage of the Democratic Convention, and the RNC has made it obsolete.

[Demeter]

1. It's the Hypocrisy

After all the stuff they heaped on Hillary, to sit there saying "Poor baby" and call for vengence just reeks. Obama is entitled to the VP of his choice, the person he feels most suited to the job and most comfortable with. That's the way the game is played, boys and girls.