Under extreme pressure, John McCain was forced to make a radical decision based on limited information. It wasn't his first choice, and it wasn't a choice in the interest of the country. It was a political choice based on desperation, and it is an insult to the responsibilities of the office of the president. Country first? Hardly. When you kowtow to the extreme, it's party first and country when you win.
Thursday night in Denver settled one thing. Barack Obama won the argument for the future of the nation. On every issue and in terms of tone, judgment, and the new politics beyond divisiveness, Obama on Thursday was eminently victorious. McCain needed to distract the nation from the fact that Barack Obama had won every reasoned argument as well as the preeminent values argument of our time: we are our brother's keeper, we are our sister's keeper.
Thus, Sarah Palin was a head fake, a shiny object to steal a week's worth of news cycles and try to gain some traction after losing the election so far, she was also a cynical play to rally the reactionary Republican base, which McCain had failed so far to do.
In fact, McCain was much more comfortable with the choice of Joe Lieberman, even reportedly offered him the job, but after Hillary endorsed Obama so strongly, he knew he had to do something to shake things up. He rescinded his offer to 'ol Joe, and started finally vetting Sarah Palin. It wasn't until Wednesday that Palin was vetted. That means that there was less than 48 hours to find everything out. Less than 48 hours to plan how to deal with the press and the new disclosures.
After so little vetting and so little exposure, the expectations on Sarah Palin were incalculably low. Nonetheless, Palin is a professional, she is an admirable product of the extreme right wing. Her's is the perfect banner around which to rally the base that McCain had never solidified: those who believe America should be governed by christian law, those who want to teach creationism in schools, those who would criminalize the decisions women make with their doctors, those who deny global warming, and those who believe the only responsibility in society is to the self, not to the community or the nation.
So, what we see in Sarah Palin is not a home run, but a base hit. She rallies the 29% who still support George W. Bush. So desperate was this contingency to rally around anything at all after these solid years of miserable desperation that suddenly the floodgates are open, and Sarah Palin is the salvation of the party. She is, however, the salvation of the right and the renunciation of America. She abandons all independent families who actually have to put dinner on the table, worry about college costs and health care, and jobs. She lustily embraces the culture war politics that gave us the 8 year disaster that is George W. Bush and she and McCain do this while providing no specifics on how to move the nation forward, get the country back on track.
Everything McCain/Palin stands for reinforces Obama's assertion that they are more of the same. Divisive, culture war politics, lie-filled smears and distortions, tax cuts for the rich, energy policy written by oil companies, no plans to address the critical crises of our age. More of the same. She attacks the press with the ferocity of Sprio Agnew. Palin is just Bush without the pedigree fighting the same campaign that republicans have fought since Nixon.
This is the high water mark for Palin. She exceeded expectations by showing up and reading a speech written before she was chosen VP by George Bush's speechwriter. Now she will have to face real criticism, and real questions. What will the investigation reveal into the alleged abuse of her power for personal vendetta? How many times will she lie about her position on the "Bridge to nowhere"? Can a mayor and governor who employs lobbyists in a campaign run by lobbyists really be considered a reformer? Is there anything in her bio, persona, or history that could appeal beyond the Bush Dead-End 29% or the 45% (and falling) who still believe the myth of the maverick?
Ultimately, John McCain has failed in his first task as a candidate. He has desperately bet the future of the country on an unknown so he could race back to the Rove/Bush/Nixon playbook to shore up support among the Republican reactionary base. John McCain put politics first, and there's no packaging in the world pretty enough to disguise the fact that he's selling the same old crap George W. Bush sold us time and time again.
Sounds right to me!