I set out to write a post this morning about the pros and cons of the Palin pick, one that in my opinion was a great move and will prove to be the one of the best moves in recent political history.
But then, while perusing the Fox News website hoping for good Gustav news and thusly good convention news, they broke the story that Palin’s 17 year old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.
I’m now having a hard time writing my glowing article.
In fact, I have to be completely honest when I say that my first thought was the reaction of the voters if Palin announced that she must be with her family through this tough time and stepped down. I’m not counting that out right now, but after considering it and allowing a cooler head to prevail, I realize that it may be more problematic than if they attack it head on.
Palin’s appointment rallied the conservatives. Donations have skyrocketed. That all-important “buzz” is finally surrounding the McCain campaign. How will this news affect that? How will the campaign spin it?
Are we now fucked?
Is my opinion of Palin different now than it was yesterday, or earlier this morning even? Not at all. Teenagers are idiots. I know I was. Let’s not pretend that teenage sex doesn’t happen.
What I’m concerned about is the reaction of the public. We know that the dems will do their typical hypocritical horseshit, suddenly becoming bastions of family values and berating Palin’s parenting (and surely telling us that gay parents could do it better). My real concern, though, is will the energy, the buzz, the feeling of “holy shit, we can win this thing!” go away? Will the conservative base become ambivalent again? And more importantly, the swing voters who were all of a sudden leaning toward McCain now sprinting back in the other direction?
This is now a really big week. And I mean REALLY big. It was big before, but now it’s fucking huge. How are they going to play this? The McCain camp has said that they knew of Bristol’s pregnancy prior to the appointment, which makes me think either they have a great plan for it, or they are simply out of their fucking minds. Either way, I’ve gotta believe that the idea of sending her to a cabin in the far reaches of the Frontier state and not mentioning her again until November 5th had to have crossed their minds. But these things never stay secret and they always come out and when they do, the fallout is always worse. So maybe this is the correct course of action. Get it out there early and move on. Maybe she’ll become more compelling, allowing her to have an even bigger stage when she speaks on Wednesday, and give her even more of a chance to win people over.
Back to the glowing post, she can deliver a speech. She is tough, she is beautiful, she is extremely interesting to even the most nonchalant of political participants. If she can put together a real homerun of a speech, in front of an intently focused crowd, will she solve her own problem?
Like I said, this week is now HUGE. I really hope that on Thursday I can come back here and write that glowing article that I intended to write this morning.
3 comments:
We all know that this so called "dirt" was vetted and was clearly anticipated prior to announcing her candidacy as vp. This is really nothing to get worked up about.
There was a rather compelling point made in Politico about the consequences of the news. And the overall point was that these flaws or scandals can piossibly make her more appealing to many undecided voters rather than less appealling
Palin has an average american family story that if marketed and delivered effectively, can work to her advantage.
Palin is the complete opposite of the traditional american politician. For one, she is a women. But she also does not come from the traditional elite family money and power in poitics. She married her high school sweetheart, who also is a standard working class american man. Palin does not have the high profile education that given to her during the height of affirmative action, nor do they have any real life given advantages that most average americans see if virtually every politician.
Palin is strong, and will prove to be a key asset in this contest. As conservatives, we need to hold our ground, stay positive, and learn about the strenghts of our candidates versus the liberals. We can trust that the McCain campaign is not worried, as they saw this coming. Keep in mind, its the party with the most amount of momentum, and the party that has truly done their part to earn the vote of americans that comes out on top on election day. This will blow over by the end of the convention with plenty of opportunity to make these issues into non=issues.
CC Europe
Republican party seems to now be the party of strategy. Although they were forced to make an unscheduled break in the schedule of the RNC, it appears that they have made some key strategic moves.
1. Politics was put aside to help fellow americans affected by hurricane gustav
2. They pulled out the speeches of Cheney and Bush. We all know both speeches were a liability the the McCain camp as they struggle to distance themselves from the current administration.
These adjustments will add serious momentum to the RNC. Many of the votes up for grabs at this time are independents who want a change from the current administration, as well as they are big on humanitarian efforts. Put a check mark under the hats of thousands of independents just on these two adjustments alone!
Obama and the mainstream media want no part of this news about Sarah Palin's daughter getting pregnant. If Obama is given the chance, he is going to take the high road, because of his awful record on abortion.
For that reason and that reason alone... watch this issue become backpage news within 2-3 days.
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