Sunday, August 31, 2008

McCain VP: Attack Dog with Nothing to Lose?

Conventional wisdom holds that Joe Biden's job as Obama's VP pick will be twofold: to appeal to voters in the base who have not signed on to Obama's candidacy, and to attack John McCain as only another senior member of the Senate can.

In my last post, I looked at the pitfalls of the GOP's choice for McCain. One of the observations I made was that if they are willing to throw out the "too young and inexperienced" line of attack, they must have something else in store. Perhaps they have given up on that angle, and will revert to the dirty character attacks of Republican campaigns past.

That's where Sarah Palin comes in.

Clearly, the GOP still has some fight left in them after Bush destroyed their party. The advantages of having Sarah Palin on the campaign trail are obvious: she's a champion for big oil, and radical right wing base will love her (Gov. Palin opposes choice, even in instances of rape or incest).

By selecting Governor Palin as McCain's VP, the Republican Party is able to suck up to their two most important constituents: Oil companies, and right wing culture warriors.

Looking at Sarah Palin, signs of a dirty general election are ominously clear: The 2 year governor of Alaska, whose only other leadership experience was as mayor of a small town of 8,000, has nothing to lose in attacking Obama at the throat.

If the campaign is going to get personal and dirty, then it makes complete sense for the GOP to select a VP candidate who shamelessly sued the Bush Administration for putting the Polar Bear on the Endangered Species List because it might hinder oil drilling. (BTW, this is an area the Obama campaign should expand upon: Sarah Palin is so far to the right, she thought the Bush/Cheney administration too soft on the environment).

Sarah Palin, a relatively young and obscure political figure literally from out of nowhere, has nothing to lose in attacking Obama at the throat.

Perhaps that is why the GOP did not select an older more experienced candidate for the job: no one is willing to risk their political career playing dirty against the inspiring candidate that Obama is.


Not so with Palin. She has a long political career ahead of her if this works out, and nothing to lose if it doesn't. She appears willing to take the risk to further her personal political fortunes. If she loses, people will just forget about her for a few years, and she will fade in to the background again.

If this politician has no shame in putting oil companies before endangered polar bears, I have a feeling she'll have no reservations about hitting Obama below the belt on character and patriotism.

Watch out. The far-right cabal that has taken over our country knows they will lose it all if we elect Barack Obama president. There is no low they won't stoop to. We've already seen a Swift Boat attack book and commercial, and the general election has not even begun.

If you thought Bush / Kerry in 2004 was ugly, this election is going to make it look like a honeymoon.


1 comment:

Captain USpace said...
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