The Tar-Pit that Obama would be Wise to Avoid

John McCain, having barely escaped the endangered species list of has-been Republican presidential candidates through some grit and strategy, is facing the tidal wave of support for Barack Obama and out of desperation may be creating his own monster.

Palin 2012 Graphic created by J Wilhide, Liberally Beautiful Blogs
(http://www.liberallybeautiful.blogspot.com)
For fair use, it is not to be reproduced in any fashion
without permission of the author.

McCain had been using tactics such as claiming that Obama's popularity was suspect. Obama is so popular that he has gained celebrity status and is therefore of the same caliber as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. That's some liability! Wow, every candidate should be careful about becoming too well known and popular. What a trap that is! Then he tried to make people afraid of Senator Obama's popularity by trying to tie him to the anti-Christ figure of the popular Left Behind book series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. John McCain said the ad was meant to be humorous, but it was targeted perfectly for the core of the Republican Religious Right who are expecting the anti-Christ to appear on the political scene in their life-time.

According to blog site Burning Cane, Sarah Palin's VP candidacy may be the web creation of a college sophomore. What? This Adam Brickley, political science major, interning at TownHall.com is a prodigy at vice-king making. Last weekend the big question for me and millions of others was "Who is Sarah Palin?" This weekend I am asking, "Who is Adam Brickley?"

It seems that a 21-year-old college sophomore with a lisp blogging from his mother's Colorado farmhouse had the secret weapon McCain had been searching for...that silver bullet to shoot down the Obama campaign. Enter Adam Brickley, aka Elephantman and his blog, Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President, started in January 2007, a year and a half ago and just two short months into Sarah Palin's governorship.

What amazing insight for a 21-year old college student and what amazing talent to create a blog and drum up support for a little known recently elected governor leading to her discovery by the unexpected front-runner of the Republican presidential race, a man whose campaign had been declared dead more than once in the primaries. Does this sound "providential?" It sounds so improbable that conspiratorial thoughts are blossoming in my mind of Palin self-promoting by buying right-wing political consultant Ralph Reed with some of that "Bridge to Nowhere" money that never made it back to Washington.

Kristopher Lorelli, a U.S. native who lives in Toronto, started a site, www.palinforvp.com, after reading Brickley's blog, and he attributes most of the publicity surrounding the governor to Brickley's initiative.

"He was advocating her long before anyone knew who she was, and he saw something in her that was special before anyone else ever saw it," said Lorelli, who works for a manufacturing distributor. "I don't know one person who knew who she was before Adam's blog."

Honestly, look at this video. This young man is focused. He appears to be reading this commentary...but I am assuming he also wrote it. Maybe he is even reading it off of his own teleprompter. Given his acumen in political prognostication I would not doubt this. (Although he claims he is not a "geek" since he lives not in his mother's basement but on the second floor.)

Whatever you know, think, or think you know about Sarah Palin's meteoric rise from small-town PTA president to VP candidate on the Republican ticket, the press has now started to dub her "The Palin Problem." Why? Well despite all of the feminism rhetoric now uncharacteristically oozing from the Republican Camp they will also be the first to cry "Sexism!" and they project her as a "delicate woman" when any attacks normal in a political race are cast towards Palin. We have seen this already in the few days after her announcement to the McCain ticket. McCain went into protection mode and all the McCain mouth-pieces were crying "foul!" when public and media inquiry and rumors started flying about Palin. And don't expect her to be in an open interview with the press anytime on the horizon. The McCain campaign says they will be using "focused communication" for the balance of this campaign. The paparazzi is out of luck for any off the cuff comments out of Palin.

I will mention a term that I run the risk of being railed upon for using but it explains this situation so well. Sarah Palin is a tar-baby. As explained in Wikipedia, Tar-Baby was a doll made of tar and turpentine, used to entrap Br'er Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Br'er Rabbit fought the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he became. In contemporary usage, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional contact. The only way to solve such a situation is by separation.

That is a perfect definition of the "Palin Problem." Not only is trying to campaign against a double-edged sword of a capable, strong female candidate who is at the same time protected because the candidate is a woman is a risky endeavor, but she is a brash and loud distraction to the presidential race. The presidential race is between Barack Obama and John McCain and was polling strongly towards Obama before the selection of Sarah Palin, who was in virtual obscurity just ten days ago and now is just sixty days away from a side slot in a presidential election. McCain cries "abuse" and "not fair" if the press or public wants to probe into who she is and where she comes from and his staff must have a round the clock shift in place purging the internet of anything about Palin or her family that can be purged from the web. Palin's image is being refined and closely handled.

This race needs to get back on track. Obama Campaign needs to get the debate back to what this race is about. Whether Sarah Palin is a Trojan horse or a paper tiger remains to be seen. She is an appeasement for the right-to-life voters and a tool of John McCain who is doing what ever it takes to be the next POTUS.

Most significantly: she is risky business for both candidates.
People are already thinking,
"Sarah Palin for President in 2012!"

Palin 2012 Graphic created by J Wilhide, Liberally Beautiful Blogs
(http://www.liberallybeautiful.blogspot.com)
For fair use, it is not to be reproduced in any fashion
without permission of the author.

MSNBC - Is McCain/Palin becoming Palin/McCain?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I confirm that I am a private citizen and in no way officially connected to the Barack Obama campaign other than personally being in support of the Obama candidacy.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos


Buzz it up