I know you're all dying to hear the latest on the guineas. Once again though, the headlines are driving me crazy, and you'll just have to suffer with me.
The big buzz, as the entire world knows, is that George McCain has chosen a woman as his Vice Presidential running mate. Hot diggety! Can we ever talk about that!
What is totally- and I meant totally missing from the world wide gossip orgy is WHY.
No, I don't mean all the crap and carp about what she's done and hasn't, who she is, what she professes... I mean the political reality. Why did McBush choose a woman running mate?
There is a real, obvious, true answer- and I have yet to see it anywhere.
You can see the answer by looking at any news source, right now. And stepping back just a tiny bit, to see the context. The details of what they are talking about are unimportant- pretty much as usual.
Here's the critical- and obvious- question: "What is everybody talking about?"
The answer is "Not Obama."
And that's why.
McBush's choice, and timing, were indeed masterful. Who Palin is matters not a whit- any chick would have served the purpose.
The presidential campaign was just about to be completely over; Obama was on the verge of wrapping up the election, right there. 100% of the press, 3 layers deep, was zooming around the Obama world, and 95% of it was "wow, this guy is hot! He's the real thing! wow!"
And- at around 8 o'clock in the morning, the very day after Obama's recordbreaking tv speech (38 million people watched his speech- a big record- more than the Olympics...), when all the world was in a category 4 hurricane of analysis - and Obama's poll numbers were rising steadily - McCain masterfully, totally, utterly extinguished the Obama "convention bounce".
Within one hour of the announcement, Obama was off all headlines- all substantive discussions were over, and 100% of the buzz was McCain/Palin etc, and ooh, what does this mean?
Ok- RESTRAIN YOURSELF!!!!!!!!
If you're human- right now, you're thinking all kinds of rational thoughts, arguments, analyses- discussions- to rebut me, or answer me, or amplify me-
And your rational discussions and vehement answers have nothing whatever to do with the politics.
Exactly as the people over at TAE state, repeatedly- this has to do only with the very predictable behavior of herds.
After the convention- all us sheeple were mooving in the direction of Obamaville. It was starting to be a stampede. Really good job, Obama.
George McCain got in the way of the herd; shouted one magic herd word- (the equivalent of "Hooo-aaaahhh!") and the entire world herd changed direction.
All conversation, all thought, shifted from Obama directions, into McCain directions. Stampede- averted.
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That- 100% - is why McCain chose Palin. Nothing, zero, nada, to do with her being female, conservative, young, etc, etc etc. She was very simply the most effective "Hoooo-aaaahh!" he had available.
And demonstrably- he was soo, so right. None of even the mainstream "liberal" press types have picked up on that, or made any effort to avoid being so blatantly manipulated. They could have made the front page half Palin; half continuing the Obama streams. Think a second- was Obama still worthy of being considered news? I sure think so. (in a rational world... wild maniacal laughter...)
Nope. It's... THE MCBUSH CHANNEL!!!! --- All McCain- All The Time!
Your nicely reasoned arguments- are completely irrelevant at this juncture. And McCain's advisors proved they know it.
Very nicely done, George. You clearly understand how it works.
But apparently- nobody - nobody at all I can see - in the press - does.
sigh.
Back to my harvest, and herding teenage guineas. They're slightly less predictable than this; more entertaining.
(don't worry, no more politics here- at least until the next time I just CAN'T STAND IT.)
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UPDATE 9/2. For anyone still tracking this nonsense; this article in the NYT today is a better than average compendium, and contains this statement: "Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory."
Which is what I said- he was just about to lose it all; and had to do something noisy. Validation! Hah! :-)
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20 comments:
So- it looks like the Republicans understand sheeple herding- better than the Democrats? Scary- but you know... it makes sense...
It does make sense. Just wait until Gustav opens the Republican convention and Hannah closes the convention. The masses of people will be glued to the weather channel. Whatever bounce McCain hoped for with Palin will be lost to the hurricanes.
Anonymous Reader
I thought the exact same thing! In fact, it was almost amusing Friday morning to click back to the major news sites and see Obama's (amazing) speech get edged out by Palin, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, I have to say "well played" to the Republicans. I hope the Dems can figure out how to rebut.
Anon #2- I've heard rumors that the Republicans are thinking, seriously, of POSTPONING their convention; to avoid conflict with the Weather Channel. On the grounds, of course, that it's a national emergency, and they're busy taking care of humanitarian business.
Miss Anna -:-) yay! Delighted to know there is SOME other intelligent life out there...
Ummm...yeah ;-). Although I don't think she was picked just to overcome Obama's bounce - I also think she was picked to highlight what a dumb (but logical, in a typical democratic way) choice Biden was as veep.
The only thing that surprised me was that he couldn't persuade Condi, who was black and female, to make the sacrifice for the good of her party (since she's the single most popular political figure in the US - still ;-P). But she wasn't going to leave GWB.
Postponing the convention will make McCain look masterly in contrast to Bush, which is to his benefit, assuming he doesn't screw it up too badly. Horribly, I think the republicans may actually get more momentum than not out of this.
Sharon
I find it hard to believe that McCain picked Palin merely to deflect some of the excitement and buzz from the Dem. National Convention. If that, indeed, were true then he is even more stupid than I thought possible.
Further, as a female, I am thoroughly offended that McCain would pick such an unqualified individual for the mere fact that the candidate has boobs.
Does he truly believe that unhappy Hillary fans will switch over to the McCain ticket simply because he has a female running mate? One could argue that (some) feminists were voting for Hillary just to get a female in office, but Palin represents so many things contrary to the feminist vote that I'm not sure exactly what vote McCain was hoping to pick up.
Someone, please explain.
Oh yeah, and if McCain keels over, is Palin really someone you want as President? Even if you do agree with their platform? Can you envision her proffering up mooseburgers during state dinners at the White House?
McCain knows that he will "win" the election even if he had picked Mickey Mouse. The Republicans stole the 2000 and the 2004 elections. Why would they not steal the 2008? In fact, they don't even need a convention.
Ahimsa
Sharon- you may be over-intellectuallizing! :-) I was also chanting "not Biden, please, not Biden..." but it didn't help, and apparently NOBODY else has noticed what a sad choice that was. sigh.
Crunch-"Further, as a female, I am thoroughly offended that McCain would pick such an unqualified individual for the mere fact that the candidate has boobs. "
so- I think you should demand to see her credentials. Think what a great sign that would be for the protesters! "Show us your CREDENTIALS!" lol!
She apparently doesn't have any others- lots of people in Alaska are speaking up and saying "What??? She's like totally not qualified."
Ahimsa- well, yeah, there is that aspect, too. We'll see.
Interesting take...I (trapped in the middle of the red bible belt) was actually wondering if he was throwing the election for some yet unforeseen (on my part) political shenanigans. I don't work with ANY women who will vote for a woman ANY political position. But as Ahimsa said, they can just do their best to steal the vote again. Who wouldn't, if they were successful twice already?
Hmmmm. Your theory makes more sense now that today's story is Palin's 17 year old daughter's pregnancy. It's like he picked Mama Spears, after all that noise about Obama being a "celebrity".
I'd like to think that talking about someone is not the same as being inspired to get out and vote for them, but I really don't know.
I heard about his announcement and immediately thought, "Mc Cain is smarter than I thought!" Yes, I too was taken aback by the smart decision to pick her on that particular night, thus eclipsing the Democratic high and at the same time making women do a double-take, if not more. Hell even I thought "since he's going to win anyway, may as well make history with a female president." Sacrilege, I know. And the world will suffer. And how horrible it be that woman to make history. But wow what a smart move.
We'll see if it stays smart, as it seems like they didn't spend a lot of time looking into this choice... Please oh please let there be skeletons.
Echoing others, I'm disappointed actually, that McCain thought he had to pick a "token female" to offset Obama's "token white male" as VPs. (It makes me doubly angry that McCain so obviously goes for the 'hottie' factor, whether in second wives or second-in-command)
I trust neither side. They both will say and do whatever they think will get them elected (I suppose that IS the point) and then will do as they please once there.
Although I do think McCain's choice for VP had something to do with her being female, you are right about the wow factor in that all eyes are now on McCain and Palin; for better or worse, they seem to have the country's attention at the moment.
I just kept walking around saying Cain's got himself a token. Doesn't matter that a strong candidate would have been better - what he wanted was a token to help him win at any cost.
The Republicans didn't pick Palin just to derail momentum, they ANNOUNCED their decision to pick her just when they did to derail momentum.
They picked her for lots of overlapping reasons. A VP pick is always about killing at least 4 birds with one stone, even Biden. Strategists think about many factors when the advise. Timing is just one. If they'd have picked a boring VP for some other reason, they'd have announced it earlier, and used some other faux-news story to try to disrupt post-convention momentum, or they'd have saved the announcement for their convention maybe. You can bet the Democrats have some surprise announcement all lined up to make shortly after the Rep convention to try to disrupt its momentum, it probably won't be quite as surprising, but they'll have something ready to go.
Brian... exactly why I'm disgusted by this entire thing. Both sides do the same thing, each pointing their finger at the other.
But what is the alternative?
I agree with you 100%. Check out my new blog: http://ademocraticmom.blogspot.com.
Hi Greenpa, I introduced myself to you yesterday and have to say, concerning this 'thread' (I think it's called): The true Republican party operatives don't care about qualifications of either the president or the VP; they want somebody who will win the vote and then be manageable and go along with the real power behind the GOP, the billionaires, the banks and corporations, the Milton Friedman crowd who would, without a pang of conscience, totally impoverish 90% of the world's population in order to keep all wealth and power where it is, in the hands of 2% of the population, and counting down. If you don't know what I'm talking about, pick up a copy of "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein.
If I could employ a little more objectivity I would have to say both political parties, not just the GOP, but I can't afford that much objectivity. I have to believe somewhat in Obama and I do. But two things scare the h___ out of me: 1) rigged voting machines; and 2) the entire econo-political structure has been so abused by the wealth-and-power clique that everyone's Go(o)d working hand-in-hand with Merlin the Magician could not possibly fix it.
This makes so much sense I can't believe no one seemed to realize this before. No wait...I can believe it. Excellent post. This is one of my new favorite blogs.
People should read this.
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