Shotgun Wedding

I hate to be a cynic, but they left me no choice.

John McCain has nothing to run on. His entire rationale for why we should vote for him is that he was “right” on the surge. Oh, and did he mention he was a POW in Vietnam? But he’s not stupid. He realized the same thing most of us did a long time ago. This election is not about him. It’s a referendum on Barack Obama. Give the man credit though. He’s come up with a very effective strategy - mock and ridicule the opponent.

Review his campaign commercials to this point. He’s accused Obama of being too popular, too wordy, too cerebral, too intelligent, even of being the messiah - twice. All ridiculous - if not irrelevant assertions, yet somehow, all effective. (Maybe this says more about the voters than the candidate.) So, while I was initially surprised at the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s vice presidential nominee, once I thought about it for a few hours and sounded off to a couple people, it all made sense. McCain is using this opportunity to continue his ridicule of Obama.

This is no "maverick" selection. John McCain is a wily old man. You don’t survive as a prisoner of war if you aren’t observant and clever. During the three months in which he had nothing to do after he wrapped up the Republican nomination, he paid very close attention to the Democratic primary. And in watching Senators Clinton and Obama skewer each other for what seemed like an eternity (I hate to keep bringing up the interminable primary race coming back to haunt the Democrats) he picked up on something important. The Democratic party is rife with conflict. Obama supporters felt the Clintons tried to marginalize Obama as “the black candidate” and openly courted the racist vote by suggesting that while Obama’s core supporters would easily come around to support Clinton, her core supporters were less magnanimous and may not support such a “non-traditional” candidate. Clinton supporters felt that it was “Clinton’s turn”, that Obama had no business stepping into her spotlight, and that the media - and to a lesser extent, Obama himself - treated her unfairly and were incredibly sexist toward her. The legacies of racism and sexism run deep in this country and the wounds don’t heal easily. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that such bitterness could easily be used to divide and conquer the Democratic party.

The media loves sensationalism. And there was nothing more sensational for the media than the prospect of the first black or female president. It’s been the narrative of this election since the cycle began almost two years ago, and the press hasn’t let it rest a single moment since. This past week at the convention, the story line was almost exclusively limited to whether or not diehard Clinton supporters would come around to support Obama. But by Thursday morning, following reconciliatory-toned speeches from the Clintons and the roll-call vote demanded by her supporters, that conversation had more or less dried up. The nomination of Palin ensures that conversation will continue up to and through the election. It also ensures that any and every discussion of and criticism directed at Palin will be dissected for the slightest hint of sexism and the racism versus sexism narrative will continue to rear it’s ugly head.

McCain selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee because of what she brings to the media narrative, not because of what she brings to the ticket. She brings nothing to the ticket. No Hillary Clinton supporter - not one - who believed in Clinton because of what she stood for, would ever vote for a McCain-Palin ticket on account of Palin. The two women are political polar opposites. The only thing Clinton and Palin have in common is a pair of X chromosomes. No one refusing to vote for Obama on account of his “lack of experience” could cast an honest vote for Palin on account of her “experience”. (And let’s be honest about something, being governor of Alaska is about the equivalent of running a hot dog stand in Times Square. Come to think of it, the hot dog vendor probably encounters more people.) Her candidacy is a cheap yet shrewd attempt by McCain to stick his finger in Obama’s eye. I hope Sarah Palin realizes she’s being used by McCain as a gimmick, for the media value of that additional X chromosome. If she doesn’t understand that, I offer this column as her wake-up call. If she does understand, I’m a little disappointed she would allow this charade to continue to this point. But after eight years I guess I’m used to being disappointed by this Republican Party.

Update: This Monday the McCain campaign confirmed that Governor Palin’s 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. The same report also indicated she intends to keep the baby and marry the father. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that this revelation might negatively affect the McCain campaign, early reaction from the conservative base so excited by Palin’s addition to the ticket last Friday is emphatically positive. According to the heads of groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, all this merely reinforces the family’s pro-life values and brightens the Palin’s rising star in the party. The afore-mentioned interest groups don’t merely ignore the fact that the abstinence-only education championed by the McCain-Palin ticket was an abysmal failure in this case (among many others), and that the “values” McCain-Palin wish to legislate on the rest of America obviously weren’t applied in their own families, they have circled the wagons asserting that these items serve only to make them more human and worth of elevation to the highest office in the land. Apparently hypocrisy is a one way (read Democratic) street for the moral majority.