Friday, September 26, 2008

Why Sarah Palin is Good for Democrats and Bad for Republicans

Why Sarah Palin is Good for Democrats

When Sarah Palin came out on stage Wednesday night, September 3rd, the entire race for the Presidency changed. During her acceptance speech she hit all of the right notes through a carefully crafted speech delivered with strong conviction, friendly personality and with enough Far Right buzzwords to get the crowd cheering wildly. In 30 minutes the convention hall was transformed from a group of party faithful who were mostly half-heartedly supporting their candidate, to a cohesive, energize party. In Sarah Palin they were able to rally around the Cult of Personality that (imho) they had been secretly, jealously, watching Democrats rally with Barack Obama.

That night Democratic panic began setting in. John McCain was such a low-energy, uninspiring grumpy old man that even the Republican pundants were having a hard time selling him with much enthusiasm. Winning the election this time around was almost going to be... dare I say it... easy.

Then, overnight, it suddenly wasn't so easy. In fact, as poll numbers started switching sides, it looked as if Palin was energizing the Right so much that she and McCain just might take the election from the Left.

Sarah Palin's greatest gift to the Left, in this election, has been to make them realize that no matter how bad the past eight years have been for America, the Left still needs to work for their candidates. That the Left still needs to earn this election. By becoming a Republican Celebrity of the First Order, Palin shook up the Left and got them working again to win this election. Any hint of complacency is gone, any signs of "we deserve this one" have been replaced by positive action for Obama and Biden.

Why Palin is Bad for Republicans

After her triumphant acceptance speech at the Republican Convention the McCain Rove Team sent Palin and McCain out on the road to do a series of public speeches. The crowds ate up the Palin excitement, cheering wildly, despite her giving the exact same speech every time. It was as if Palin the Rock Star was doing a concert of her one hit single.

When it was announced that Palin was not going to be made available for interviews the press was not amused. Even moderate-to-conservative pundants were not happy with that decision. Given McCain's age and medical history, it was vital for the American public get to know the woman who was, potentially, going to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

As she continued to not be available for interviews, the concerns only grew louder. When Rove finally relented and gave her to Charlie Gibson of ABC it quickly became apparent that Palin either had not been as well-prepared for the interview as she should have been or that she simply did not know all that much about Big League politics.

In her interview this week with Katie Couric, this trend continued. When pressed, repeatedly, for a single example of McCain's support for financial reform to back her claim of the same, Palin finally gave up, saying, "I'll try to find you some, and I'll bring them to you." (The UK's Telegraph's headline read, "Sarah Palin endures 'cringeworthy' CBS interview"

Capitol Hill sources are saying that Palin has done extremely poorly in a mock debate held in preparation for next week's Vice Presidential debate as well as in a mock press conference. The Huffington Post.com quotes McCain aids describing both as "disastrous."

The moral of this Alaskan Salmon Out of Water Story is twofold:

1. Big fish in small, remote waters do not, necessarily, automatically have what it takes to swim with the bigger fish.

2. Self-confidence is easy to have when you're the one in charge. When you're no longer in charge, however, is the real test of confidence, character and wisdom.

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