Stunt casting

Updated---twice now---Saturday morning.

Second time in a week I got stiffed on the running mate news.

First, Obama forgets to text me about Biden.  And this afternoon the carrier pigeon John McCain sent out announcing it's Palin failed to show up.  I hope it just got lost.  There was a rather smug looking hawk sitting on a tree branch outside the window at lunch time.

As stunt casting goes, though, I think Sarah Palin's a pretty good stunt.  Just about anybody else McCain could have picked who wouldn't have been greeted with a giant yawn either had the good sense to take their name out of the hat a long time ago or was eliminated by McCain himself on the grounds that he doesn't share the limelight with anybody.  Palin made a good story all day, just because of the surprise factor alone.

Palin's an outsider.  That lets the Media play up the McCain as a maverick who likes other mavericks angle.

Her being a woman helps him mainly in that it allows the Media to re-hype their Obama has a woman problem story.  No Progressive Democratic woman in her right mind was or is going to vote for McCain---that doesn't mean there aren't Progressive Democratic women who won't vote for Obama, but protest vote options are still there:  They could not vote at all or they can vote for Cynthia McKinney.  "Where else are you going to go?" has an answer.  Just the answer didn't have to be McCain and it's still not going to be.  Palin is as bad on the issues as he is.  What his choosing a woman does is make him look like a big man to other men, particularly those in the Media, but also to men who were never going to vote Democratic, never were going to vote for Hillary, aren't going to vote for a black man, no way, no how, but who can now tell themselves that their feelings about Hillary weren't sexist, because look I'm voting for a woman for Vice-President, and their feelings about Obama aren't illiberal, because look I'm voting for a woman for Vice-President, I'm obviously all for equality.

Her lack of experience may appear to blunt the attack on Obama's, but Obama can't really attack her on that score, so I don't see why McCain can't just keep plugging away, and besides he's shameless.  Plus, he can make the case that he doesn't plan to die right away so she'll have time to learn on the job.

Like Hillary learned by being around Bill.

Palin is attractive, so the Media can treat her like a starlet at the same time they're pretending to treat her like a serious politician.  That'll make their fall.

Hanging out with a younger man would make McCain look old.  Hanging around with an attractive younger woman will make him look lucky to men whose minds work that way.

Biden will be tempted to rein himself in during their debate.  He can't eat her alive the way he would have any man because the talking heads will paint him as a bully.  Her lack of experience will give her the advantage that comes from low expectations.  If Biden doesn't reduce her to tears, she'll have won.

She's a character in her own right.  She has an interesting story of her own.  And did I mention she's young and attractive?  People will be interested in learning about her.  They'll actually tune into the Republican Convention, at least on the night she speaks.

And she has qualities that make her personally appealing to John McCain, the main one being she's a nobody and knows it.  She won't expect him to consult her, to defer to her, to take advice from her, or to give her much to do on the campaign trail or in office should he win.  She will leave McCain alone to confer and consult with the only person he appears to listen to, the man who will be his shadow Veep, Joe Lieberman.  Whatever you think of Lieberman, he has a real talent for playing Tom Hagen to McCain's Sonny Corleone.

By the middle of the campaign, Palin will be all but invisible.  By November people will need to look at their ballots to remind themselves of her name, which will be good for McCain, because I think by the end of the campaign people will need to be reminded who he is too.  If by some crazy chance McCain wins, Palin will have to find herself some hobbies.

Of course, she could wind up the first woman President, and wouldn't that be ironic?

But for now she's done the job she was chosen to do.  She's taken some of the spotlight from Obama and helped remind people the Republicans are going to have a convention too.

I mean, look, I'm writing about her!  You think I'd have a post up about Romney?

Updated to provide some Northern Exposure:  LGM's resident Alaskan, davenoon, takes some time off from his academic duties to offer a local perspective on Governor Palin.

Updated to show what a smart guy I am:  Me, last night:

Her lack of experience may appear to blunt the attack on Obama's, but Obama can't really attack her on that score, so I don't see why McCain can't just keep plugging away, and besides he's shameless.  Plus, he can make the case that he doesn't plan to die right away so she'll have time to learn on the job.

Top McCain aide in a quote I came across this morning:

"[Sarah Palin is] going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long," said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain's top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain's health, which Mr. McCain's doctors reported as excellent in May.

Of course, Steve Benen doesn't think this is the best tack for McCain to be taking.  "Vote for me because I plan to live until at least 2013 and by that time she ought to be up to speed."

Comments

[Apostate]

Nailed it.

[jonst]

I think you are nuts to think that Obama can't attack her for being "inexperienced".

[Lance]

Jonst,

Oh, probably. I think a lot of nutty things. But I don't think it gets Obama anywhere to attack her at all. Biden can show her up in the debates, if he's very careful, and that will be enough. My main point though was that McCain isn't going to back off his "Ready to lead" line anymore than Bush and Cheney being draft dodgers stopped them from sicking the Swift Boat Liars on John Kerry.

[Jennifer]

She reminds me of Mariska Hargitay. All day, yesterday, I kept wondering if John McCain was going to be in the cast of the latest Law & Order. Ripped from the headlines!!

[actor212]

There's a bit more there, Lance.

[actor212]

Aw crap. Sorry about the bad coding...

[Dr X]

"most doctors think he'll be around that long."

Well, there is a ringing endorsement. True, life expectancy tables show that he's only got about a 10% chance of dying in the next 4 years. But beyond that 10% chance he'll die are the chances of being felled by disabling but not immediately fatal health problems such as dementia, stroke or other debilitating infirmities of age. If he were in the job market as a man without significant power and wealth, few businesses people would take a chance on him. Whether that's right or wrong, it's perverse that only in what is arguably the most important job in the world do we treat the natural effects and risks that come with being a septuagenarian as inconsequential.

[calling all toasters]

So McCain wins the news cycle by implicitly admitting that his attacks on Obama for inexperience and celebritude were all bullshit? By picking a VP nominee who makes Dan Quayle look like Charlemagne? And his big macho whoop about people earning his trust slowly is gone, too.

And any PUMA who now gets to say they are voting for McCain because of Palin is lying--they're voting for McCain because Obama stubbornly remains an African-American. Just because they get to say their self-deluding bullshit out loud won't change their votes or anybody else's.

But McCain gets to steal the news cycle. Well, that actually helps Obama--his speech will be remembered unspun. Mark Halperin and the rest of the press scumbags have to talk about Palin, so they don't have an opportunity to tell us that Obama actually gave a lousy speech. Thursday and Friday killed the McCain campaign.

[Uncle Merlin]

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT SARAH PALIN NEED TO SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.
1) Her husband works for BP.
2) She wants the Polar Bear off the endangered species list in the VERY Summer that the North West passage actually has melted through!

Now which pocket do YOU think she is in?

[lynnie]

This is the first post I've read that wasn't all about how McCain was just trying to attract the Hillary supporters. You really nailed it.

[SweetSue]

If the Governor of Alaska is a "nobody" what does that make the rest of us?

[jonst]

Lance,

If I had a hundred dollars for every time I've seen/heard that generic sentence "But I don't think it gets [fill in relevant Democrats name here] anywhere to attack her [him, it, them] at all" I could get the hell out of this country and retire in the South of France somewhere. Or Barcelona, maybe. Yes, Barcelona. Don't worry...they will take your advice Lance. I guarantee it.

[velvet goldmine]

There's one of those wild emails going around that I actually find believable: That "rumor has it" her last child (the one that made her a pro-life saint) is actually her grandchild. It's true that she stunned people by announcing her pregnancy just before the baby was born, and apparently her daughter vanished from high school for five months, supposedly because of mono.

I remember Charlie Gibson recounting how no one had known Palin was in her seventh month, "probably because she's so slim." Huh? Usually it's the opposite. The "bump"
shows much earlier on a trim frame -- especially after four children.

Don't really know how it would harm or hurt her, though. Still makes them a pro-life family, albeit a wacky one. I think this plot was on Desparate Housewives last year - maybe that's where they got the idea! If true, of course.

[Strudel & Shotguns]

"Her lack of experience may appear to blunt the attack on Obama's, but Obama can't really attack her on that score ..."
Oh my goodness.
Just in terms of education, are you saying that a bachelor's in journalism from Idaho State is on a par with a Columbia poly-sci bachelor's, a JD from Havard Law then a professor of law at University of Chicago Law for 12 years? On the basis of education alone, I would choose Obama over Palin to be president.

Then there's Obama's seven years in the Illinois legislature, which ain't no salmon boat. Then there's his couple of years as a US senator. I'm thinking the experience issue is moot argument in the face of these facts. Palin's been Alaska governor for a couple of years -- population 670,000. Chicago alone has a population of nearly three million people.

Experience argument wrecks on the rocks of fact.

[jonst]

Strudel and Shotguns,

You wrote: 'Just in terms of education, are you saying that a bachelor's in journalism from Idaho State is on a par with a Columbia poly-sci bachelor's, a JD from Havard Law then a professor of law at University of Chicago Law for 12 years?"

Yes, that is what I think Lance is saying. And if so, he is not alone. And in fact, Lance, and many others, are saying Obama can't attack her, period for the air headed, right wing, religious nut she is. And she will be shown to be. I don't know why, but as I noted in my previous comment, this lack of attack mode seems to be a fetish with Democratic leaders.

[Lance]

Folks,

Some of you are leaping to the conclusion that because I think Obama shouldn't attack Palin on the experience question it must be because I think Obama is weak there and even as weak as she is. Hardly. But this is about perception and staying on message. The experience thing is John McCain's turf. Why fight him there? Palin is irrelevant to the main point, McCain wants to be George Bush Redux. If the Democrats make a big deal about Palin's lack of experience, then the experience question is on the table, and even if Obama wins it on the facts---and by the way when was the last time Democrats won any argument just because the facts were on their side?---he'll end up wasting time explaining why he isn't as inexperienced as Palin.

That's all I meant by that.

As for not criticizing her--she's a Right Wing religious nut who wants to drown polar bears. There's plenty else there to criticize.

But now that it's been brought up, I really think it's a bad idea to start waving Obama's diplomas in people's faces. Never a good way to win friends and influence people, especially people who will be lucky if they afford to send their kids to community college.

[David]

Well, Obama spokesperson Bill Burton said “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” so apparently Obama can attack her for being inexperienced. Obama distanced himself from this remark, but of course, that's what spokesmen are good for - they make the attacks for the candidate, and then the candidate gets to look presidential by pretending that it's not them making the attack and they're above such things.

[Lance]

David, I like this approach, both the let the spokesfolk do it part and the message. It's not so much an attack on her for being inexperienced as it is an attack on McCain's lack of judgment and foresight. Questioning McCain's judgment all around is very much a part of the McCain=George W. II. Keep the focus on McCain, that's the best plan.

[Chainsaw]

What's with the repeated meme "she's attractive"? So is a crack whore if that's what you're looking for, or are you referring to that subclass of men who still finds Ann Coulter and Tammi Faye Bakker attractive?