Friday, August 29, 2008

The Palin Effect: What it Says and What it Means About Election 2008

What it says about the McCain Camps Thinking: Frankly, that he is too old and too experienced. Instead of reinforcing a strength with Ridge or shoring up a weakness with Romney, the McCain camp has all but ceded to the idea that this election is indeed about change. They have come to the calculation that with a depressed Republican base the only way for McCain to get to 270 electoral votes is by stirring the pot. The hype about Palin being the face of the future of American Conservatism is just that, hype and jibe: Both Romney and Pawlenty would have appeased the conservative wing of the Republican party, but neither would create the national stir of putting a women on the ticket, especially after 2 years during which the mainstream media made it a persistent theme.

DOES PALIN'S PICK UNDERCUT THE MCCAIN LINE THAT BARACK OBAMA IS NOT READY TO BE PRESIDENT???

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations: The Vice-Presidential Debate

CONTRARY to the conventional wisdom that putting Palin in a room with Biden is the equivalent of political homicide, Biden will walk onto that stage with everything to lose and nothing to gain, whereas Palin has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Her bar will be set low and the slightest slip up on Biden's part could cost him the debate.

Is She Ready to Lead?

This is the theme that Democrats will hammer home over the next 65 days. In choosing Palin, the media starved McCain camp has succeeded in shifting (albeit not balancing) the attention from the Obama campaign. The question now is at what cost? Will this be good attention? Or bad attention? If the media chooses to focus more on her inexperience and on the question of whether she is ready to lead, this pick will blow up in McCain's face.

What Now?

Stay Tuned...

UPDATE: Republican and Democratic Reaction to Palin's Selection

Evangelical figure, Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission:

Governor Palin is a vice-presidential selection which shows that John McCain at the age of 72 today is still able to think outside the box. Governor Palin will delight the Republican base. She is pro-life. She is an avid hunter and member of The National Rifle Association and is both a conservationist and someone who avidly believes in exploiting our fossil fuel resources as well as developing other forms of energy. A mother of five and a background as a television commentator makes her appear to be a very solid candidate for appealing to a lot of women who feel that Senator Clinton was treated disrespectfully by the Obama camp. It appears that Senator Obama played it safe in picking Senator Biden and Senator McCain made the bold and unconventional choice in picking Governor Palin.

Obama Campaign Response:

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same,” said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

Mark Levin @ the National Review:

“Count me in with both feet… Palin would knock the legs out from under Obama’s monopoly hold on ‘change.’”

Stay Tuned for Review of Media Reaction to the Palin Selection...

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