Palin
Sarah Palin is attractive, compellingly watchable, and a good speaker with a fine grasp of popular rhetoric. And she is obviously just what the Republicans wanted to see -- someone who knows how to go on the attack, how to hate and belittle.
In short, she kind of reminds me of Kimberley from Melrose Place.
Like Kimberley, she is very watchable, and not someone you would want to be a target of, but I don't think she is anyone most sane folk would want running a superpower.
And I think ultimately I agree with Peggy Noonan, an old Reagan insider who was caught candidly expressing her opinion while on mic -- the McCain camp have got caught up in the idea of 'breaking the narrative', rather than politics. And they've changed the narrative alright, so much so that McCain himself is almost vanishing right now--- but that doesn't mean that people will actually want to vote for the pretty but scary lady from Alaska. Basically, while an interesting candidate who makes for good media, and one who is enthralling the conservative base (some of whom are even going so far as to pray that McCain is elected and then promptly dies), ultimately she means the McCain camp is running towards the Right two months out from an election, even though he knows he is doing poorly with the centre. It is an act of desperation to keep a flagging campaign going a bit longer.
And it may even be the right decision. at least as far as electoral success. McCain can read polls like anyone else, and knows that he was doomed to be beaten like a mule in November. He probably still will be, but if you know you are losing, you might as well try something risky. Of course, risking putting a superpower in the hands of a relatively inexperienced ideologue for electoral success isn't the right thing to do from a viewpoint of responsibility or patriotism, only a desperate desire to win -- but if there is one thing that has been clear about McCain over the last few years, it is that he there isn't much he isn't prepared to sell out for a chance at sitting in the big chair.
In short, she kind of reminds me of Kimberley from Melrose Place.
Like Kimberley, she is very watchable, and not someone you would want to be a target of, but I don't think she is anyone most sane folk would want running a superpower.
And I think ultimately I agree with Peggy Noonan, an old Reagan insider who was caught candidly expressing her opinion while on mic -- the McCain camp have got caught up in the idea of 'breaking the narrative', rather than politics. And they've changed the narrative alright, so much so that McCain himself is almost vanishing right now--- but that doesn't mean that people will actually want to vote for the pretty but scary lady from Alaska. Basically, while an interesting candidate who makes for good media, and one who is enthralling the conservative base (some of whom are even going so far as to pray that McCain is elected and then promptly dies), ultimately she means the McCain camp is running towards the Right two months out from an election, even though he knows he is doing poorly with the centre. It is an act of desperation to keep a flagging campaign going a bit longer.
And it may even be the right decision. at least as far as electoral success. McCain can read polls like anyone else, and knows that he was doomed to be beaten like a mule in November. He probably still will be, but if you know you are losing, you might as well try something risky. Of course, risking putting a superpower in the hands of a relatively inexperienced ideologue for electoral success isn't the right thing to do from a viewpoint of responsibility or patriotism, only a desperate desire to win -- but if there is one thing that has been clear about McCain over the last few years, it is that he there isn't much he isn't prepared to sell out for a chance at sitting in the big chair.