The Reason Behind Palin

[mindwalker_i]

I've had all day to think about this, and it's all making sense now.

First off, both my wife and I said selecting Sarah would seriously piss off Hillary. I'd be more than willing to bet a lot of people came to that conclusion immediately, so what happens if Hillary campaigns for Obama now? First thing in people's minds will be that this is a cat fight. McCain even announced Palin as the first vice PRESIDENT. This effectively kills Hillary's ability to help out Obama, or at least to a great degree.

Second, Hillary, Bill, Obama and others gave excellent speeches at the convention. Everybody left with a strong sense of unity and a very positive feeling. McCain had to do something about that and pronto. So he pulls in this person from far afield, someone that even a lot of Republicans reacted to with a thundering WTF? This did a couple of things. First, everybody's attention was pulled hard away from Obama's message and the sense of unity and community by this whacked-out choice.

Second, and most importantly, most people realize the political nature and timing of the announcement. The sense of unity and community from the convention gets replaced with the familiar sense of cynicism that we are all so used to after 8 years of political attacks and disastrous decisions made on political considerations (Iraq for starters). With the mood effectively changed, voters will be more receptive to the negative attacks and smears that the Republicans are so good at. Destroying that sense of what we can do, what we can accomplish, to bring back the feeling that it's all jacked and can't be helped is essential to giving McCain any chance of winning.

I have some ideas of how to counter this strategy. It seems to me like the best thing to do is to point out how this decision was purely political (without mentioning the impending "cat fight"). Point out how the timing was made to override Obama's positive message and get it out of people's heads, and how we're going to pay for that decision. In order to set the stage for McCain's smears, we're going to end up with a completely incapable VP - an inexperienced right-winger who would be a complete disaster if McCain were unable to carry out his term.

-walker

[valerief]

1. It was just done to knock Obama's triumph off the Friday news cycle. Period.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. Stick to your day job.

We're capable of unity, in spite of McNasty's "whacked-out choice." And from a fundie wingnut perspective, it was a brilliant choice. Shift your attention to disunity in the Republican party -- moderates are not happy with Palin.

[mindwalker_i]

3. Of course we are capable of unity

...in spite of most of the messages today being focused on Palin. But like you said, a lot of moderates are not happy. This is what they will focus on rather than the positive messages comming after the convention. I'm saying that with that shift in mood, people at large will be more open to the negative campaigning of the Republicans.

Obama's a pretty smart person and so is Clinton (Hillary). I'm sure they see this and will counter it as well as possible.

[alfredo]

4. She was the only person on his list that said "yes."

[mindwalker_i]

5. A sucker

born every minute.

[alfredo]

7. Which one was the sucker? She's probably not immune to using this

as a way to get into the national spotlight.

[orleans]

11. i would bet THAT is the actual reason. n/t

[alfredo]

14. After what one Rep consultant said about the ones not selected being

the lucky ones, it could be the reason.

[Catherine Vincent]

6. I just hate that the Palin news knocked Obama's acceptance speech off the news today. nt

[alfredo]

8. that's alright. I'm not sure McCain's veep pick is going to do him any

good. Anyway, America is going to be very busy next week with Gustav.

[Contrary1]

9. I think Hillary can take care of Palin.

And she has every right to be pissed off. Not so much that McSnore chose Palin, but that she was obviously picked to go after Clinton voters.

Hillary should counter that there are no original ideas being offered by the Repub ticket, that Palin could not even come up with her own idea as to a woman in the WH, 18M cracks, blah, blah, blah. Hopefully, she will keep quoting the Senator from NY.

Granted, she did not have a whole lot of notice that she would be on the ticket, but still; she knew she was being considered. Can you imagine Hillary in her place? The room would have been shaking.

I watched and listened to Palin today, and took very little from her "speech". Why? Because she said very little. I did discover that she bestows rather odd names on the children, and that she opposed the bridge deal. Yeah, right. :eyes:

Not enough meat for me, but the Repubs are eating it up. I doubt if most had even heard of her before today, and yet she is the newly-crowned savior for their party. If the polls show an uptick for them, I'll have to assume that they hope McCain doesn't finish his term for whatever reason. How else could it be interpreted?

I also do not think McCain will finish his first term if elected. That really worries me.

[Fumesucker]

10. Someone else already pointed this out..

Palin gives an "out" for those who will not vote for Obama because he's black but don't really want to admit it, even to themselves.

"I'm voting for the woman, that will be even more historic than the black".

[pilar007]

12. mccain chose palin to piss on obama's historic run for the presidency

[disgruntled98]

13. The only thing he pissed on was a spark plug.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Ferraro
Losing with a female running mate has been done. It's what the kids call "Epic Fail".
Look, you want to be historic? Put the woman on the top of the ticket! Anything else and you are 24 years too late!
How come with the democrats it's "Clinton on the top of the ticket or fuck you!", but it's ok for vice president on the Republican ticket? Another double standard.

[alfredo]

15. He only talked to her once back in February. He doesn't really know her.

Either he was running out of people to tap for Veep, or it was a desperate attempt at wooing alleged disgruntled Hillary supporters.