Friday, August 29, 2008

Now Things Get Interesting

Bold goddamn move by the Republican party to throw a woman in the VP seat!

In what looked to have peaked during the heat of the primaries and the three horse nominee race, the black man / old white guy ticket is getting challenged by the old white man / woman ticket. As much as they are evil, marrow-minded and backwards thinking, intolerant profiteers, I have to applaud the shock value and sheer savvy of their selection of Sarah Palin to garner some attention for the party of the privileged. Ultimately, their plan won't pay off the way they hoped.

While there is MILF Veep attention from men, the real draw of Palin is to try and steal the Hillary votes from disgruntled Democrats who see Obama as a poorly timed stunt nominee. But the major problem is that Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. She's not even a Hillary Duff. Even the briefest of looks will show Palin is hardly the caliber of woman to walk behind Clintion's accomplishments, let alone match them. And while I have complained of Obama's neophyte background in comparison to making the candidate selection for the Dems, how much leverage for making the same accusations has McCain lost now with the
incredibly green Palin? And let's not all forget her terrific maternal instinct!

In the groundbreaking move of selecting Obama, at least VP Biden was installed to give a sense of balance and bring Clinton supporters back to the fold, plus syphon moderates who see Biden as more presidential than McCain. Between the Barack buzz and Biden credibility, their balanced ticket has wider draw than the McCain / Palin one for the simple fact that Palin is just window dressing. The Alaskan governor may bring the actual Republican values to the ticket (anti-gay marriage, pro-life, religious devotion, oil exploration in her home state,
corruption controversy), but being a gun-toting redneck isn't going to add extra votes - as unhappy as right wingers are with the moderate leaning McCain, they're not jumping to the other side. Palin only adds some perceived value to the red states for their vote, and between the two of them, they basically (and for the Reps, finally) equal one candidate. Obama / Biden comes across like two people, and the tag team match up, after the buzz and dust settle, looks pretty lopsided.

If the roles were reversed, and McCain was as staunchly Republican as his vagina VP, he'd look like a healthier candidate and stronger contender, balanced by a more progressive, moderate lady. But as she plays her Condi Rice / Ann Coulter GOP-in-a-dress tough gal routine, McCain has to ham up his Republican machismo to not be overshadowed, and that'll only come across as disingenuous. A Obama / McCain debate would hardly be as exciting as a Biden / Palin talkoff, and for any of the oddsmakers, I assure you that Biden, as the favorite, is going to slaughter her. And as seen in July when addressed as a dark horse contender for a running mate, not only was Palin less than interested, but genuinely unaware of what it meant.


In essence, Palin brings teeth to the soft campaign of McCain, but that bite ends up being weak. But if they secretly trying to pick up the nerd vote, I have to congratulate them again. Fanboys will already have taken notice - the Republican ticket looks just like Colonel Tigh and President Roslin from Battlestar Galactica.

In what is either a sign that BSG has achieved cultural critical mass or that at least one of the two Republican nominees to office is actually an alcoholic robot, the similarities between the two pairs seemed to be one of the most common blog commentaries about McCain's choice:

McCain is a military man who spent time in a Vietnam prison camp, the character of Col. Tigh is a military man who spent time in a Cylon prison camp. Sarah Palin comes from a family of school teachers, the character of Laura Roslin was school teacher before becoming Secretary of Education (and then later President).

It seemed that no-one wanted to draw the McCain/Roslin cancer parallels - but it goes to show that the Roslin / Airlock ticket that had so many excited on Caprica just wasn't bold enough.

2 comments:

Idle Eyes said...

And there is compelling "evidence" that warrants further digging that that fifth, poorly named, DS suffering child, Trig, is actually not Palin's. Its her daughter's. Go to digg's top 10 for a few articles on this. At the very least, her choice to take an 8 hour flight and then a 45 minute drive AFTER leaking amniotic fluid (assuming she was really pregnant) showed terrible, endangering judgment.

famous m said...

I've heard that too but seems a little far fetched - I'd be shocked if the GOP didn't investigate that before letting her be named to the ticket. And aside from poor naming practice, I too question that whole travel plan...see my post on that kid's shitty name.