Given it’s football season, indulge me as I use a pigskin analogy to describe the last few months of the presidential race. Think of the primaries as the conference championships. Envision the flashy tailback Barack Obama having to fight for every yard against a tenacious Hillary Clinton. Obama was clearly the more exciting player but he just couldn’t put any real distance between himself and Clinton. But at some point the thin lead built up by the Team Obama assumed a larger significance as the clock wound down. With time running out, Team Hillary reluctantly conceded defeat and grudgingly walked off the field without shaking hands. They would spend a lot of time in the locker room second guessing their original game plan and play calling.
Having beaten Clinton, Team Obama must then face Team McCain, an older, more established team but one considered a few years past its prime. Team Obama enters the game a prohibitive favorite and media darling. The pundits expect a decent game but think the youth, talent and enthusiasm of Team Obama will be too much for Team McCain team and it’s creaky quarterback.
Then “it” happens. On the eve of the big game, Team McCain announces a change at wide receiver. Instead of trotting out one of the veteran receivers, McCain goes with some unknown kid from Alaska. The word is she runs a 4.3 forty and eats defensive backs for lunch. The football world is electrified and the opposition terrified. All of a sudden, the focus is off the aging quarterback and on “The Thriller from Wasilla.”
This is about where the race stands. Gov. Palin is indeed the wunderkind of the moment and democrats have done a horrible job reacting to her. From the hideous comment about her only qualification for the job is she hasn’t had an abortion to the lipstick bungle, the democrat response has been negative, shrill and hysterical.
As I wrote when Gov. Palin was announced, she represents such a threat to the democrat world order; they will find it necessary to destroy her before her appeal takes root. Their heavy handed approach thus far may be making that impossible. In much the same way democrats demonize black republican achievers like Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell and Condi Rice, they feel compelled to attack women not of their kind.
What democrats are finding is there are a lot of women and men out there for whom abortion and gay rights are just some of the issues they consider when voting not the only ones. There has already been a 20% switch amongst white women to McCain-Palin in the last few weeks. That is nothing short of seismic and will crush Obama if left unchecked.
The question is can Obama get his mojo back. I think he can only because Americans are so fed up with republicans. But Obama’s going to have to give us more than lofty speeches and tales of community organizing after Harvard. BTW, why is it only democrats are community organizers and republicans are volunteers? He’s going to have to get back to issues and specifics.
The reason Sarah Palin may carry the day is the reason Obama has the democrat nomination. People are looking to turn the page but they just might go for McCain to see how the Sarah Palin story ends.
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Bob Herbert recently said " For those who haven’t noticed, we’re electing a president and vice president, not selecting a winner on “American Idol.”
Noted in his article were the following: Palin had no idea of what the Bush Doctrine was. In a speech on 9/11 she identified Iraq with the WTC attack. Her claim to foreign policy know how was the proximity of Alaska to Russia.
The news junkies are up on all of this but as long as the greater public sees fit to choose leaders that fit on the American Idol pedestal or other anti intellectual types, we will remain in trouble.
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