Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s campaign manager, complained to Howard Kurtz in today’s Washington Post that the media are engaged in a mission to destroy Palin. He got it all wrong.
It was McCain’s boneheaded selection of the unknown Palin that triggered the massive investigation into her background. As Jack Shafer in Slate rightly points out: “The press is merely doing on short notice what the McCain campaign’s vetting team should have done between March—when he clinched the nomination—and now: properly vetting his Vice President candidate.”Everything the press finds out about Palin is a scoop. Shafer mentions her earmark flip-flops, political inexperience, support for the teaching of creationism, book-banning, “troopergate” scandal, husband’s DUI and pregnant daughter.
Each topic is fair game in this Internet-driven age. More “issues” are bound to be uncovered during the next two months leading up to the election. That’s why Palin must go.
McCain is already an underdog to Obama. His campaign simply does not need the distractions surrounding his loopy running mate. If McCain chooses to stubbornly stick with Palin, he simply loses his last chance for the Presidency. The initial notion that Palin would attract Hillary Clinton supporters was hogwash and an insult to women everywhere. Palin and Clinton are polar opposites. Just wait till Hillary hits the campaign trail for Obama. Palin will be toast.
The Republicans and McCain come across as very thin-skinned when they do things like shaft CNN’s Larry King, king of the softball questions, because Tucker Bounds was grilled by Campbell Brown. Tell us again, Tuck, about Palin’s heroic leadership of the Alaskan National Guard. Geez, Bounds would have us think that Palin is a modern day Molly Pitcher.
The bad news keeps piling up on Palin. There is a report that even Palin’s mother-in-law is uncertain about whether she will vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. Faye Palin is an Obama fan who doesn’t know what the mother of five kids adds to the GOP ticket.
There is a graceful “out” for Sarah. Levi Johnson, the 18-year-old future husband of 17-year-old Bristol Palin, will be at the Republican National Convention. A friend of this blogger suggests that the GOP throw a shotgun wedding—the event could be sponsored by the National Rife Assn.—for the starry-eyed teenagers. That will really fire-up the Republican base. The media love a good wedding. The nuptials of Alaska’s royalty will rank right up there with Charles and Diana. It would be a fairy tale finish to Sarah Palin’s national political ambitions. She can then resume her “hockey mom” life after the wedding.
Mitt is lurking in the high grass, waiting for a call from McCain.
(Image: ExplorePAHistory.com)