Letter from the Left Coast: Liberals dis' Palin at their Peril

The holidays are over and Ian Bowater, the author of our regular letter from sunny California, returns to find to his shock that McCain is back in the running with a babe in tow

Surprise! It’s the last month of the regular season in baseball. Is John McCain “Mr. Shocktober”? When I left you, it was July 4th Independence Day and now I return at the official end of the summer on Labour Day. Why the long hiatus? Have we all been hanging on with bated breath for the convention season? Not exactly… nothing much happened over the summer. There was some sort of sports event in China, Ronaldo didn’t go to Madrid and New Orleans is about to be hit with another devastating hurricane. Same old same old, except… the Chicago Cubs, the perennial also-rans of Major League Baseball are leading the Central Division of the National League, the first team to eighty wins this season and the best record in all of baseball. This is the Cubs’ year – their first since 1908.

There is a time-honoured tradition at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. When the opposing team hits a home run, the Cubs fans in the cheap seats don’t keep the ball, they throw it back onto the field. It is a hubristic display of petulance, which for the most part is out of touch with reality. There have been plenty of balls thrown back over the years. Something similar happened in Denver this week at the Democratic Convention. Barack Obama, speaking to 80,000 thousand fans in the Mile High stadium, hit one out of the park. It was a masterful speech, full of policy content that had been lacking before and with plenty of shots at McCain to prove he could throw a punch as well as take one. His powerful dinger straight off the sweet spot, sailed over the wall and landed right in the heart of the McCain campaign. The following day the ball was lobbed back over with the announcement that Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, was McCain’s pick for Vice President. It, too, was hubristic, petulant and way out of touch with reality.

Until that point, it had been a great convention for the Democrats and an even greater baseball game. Ted Kennedy got on base on an err-or. Hillary hit a double to left field with her pledge of support for the man she hates to love and the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Bill hit a triple by giving a shout-out to the low income poor. Apparently, he was pinch hitting for John Edwards on that at-bat. Even John Kerry scored on a sacrifice fly by pointing out McCain was a bigger flip-flopper than him. Then the Rookie of the Year, the Kid From Nowhere, hit his homer. McCain gave a mealy-mouthed response on Thursday night but remained strangely subdued. Friday morning he played his ace in the hole and the final crackpot was launched towards the glass ceiling.

McCain had been touting his experience and Obama’s lack of it. It was working. All summer the polls were narrowing and then marginally favouring the very Senior Senator from Arizona. Barack’s world tour was a distant memory. Why he felt the need to shore up the Berlin vote is not entirely clear. Barack’s pick for vice President was less than inspired and typified the campaign so far. It was all trailer and no big picture, For weeks the identity was kept under wraps. His adoring fans would be the first to know by text message if they signed up and presumably were then solicited for cash. The excitement mounted up to the very day. Then it broke five minutes before they pushed the text button and Joe Biden popped up to believers and non-believers alike. Yawn! Everyone knew it was going to be Joe and nobody cared. Remember, Joe? He was the guy who ripped off Neil Kinnock’s stump speech and forgot to credit him. The press pack tore him apart for it. He was accused of plagiarism. But nobody to this day has pointed out his real fatal mistake. He ripped off the world’s biggest political loser. Let’s hope there’s no whiff of Kinnock around the campaign come early November.

Biden had been specifically chosen to shore up Obama’s lack of foreign policy chops. All through the campaign, Barack said he didn’t need it but that soon proved to be wrong. When the Georgia crisis erupted, Obama was on holiday in Hawaii. McCain got out in front of it and filled the vacuum with Cold War rhetoric. He sounded even more hawkish than Bush, who was still gazing into the eyes of Putin at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing. Georgia was the perfect Olympic event.

The four yearly Jingo-Fest called the Olympics always brings out the best in American sports commentary. They have never got past the Cold War medal race. When the Americans are not raving about their latest golden triumph, they are accusing some communists of cheating. At least half dozen times, some yakmeister called Chuck or Rowdie or Todd will refer to the Russians as “the Soviets”. Every Ukrainian or Belarussian has their Olympic pedigree exposed right back to the day when they took steroids to win the egg and spoon race at Yuri Gagarin Elementary School. So when the Georgians were suckered into warmongering in South Ossetia, they thought George Bush would come to their aid and not just sell them more weapons for the Russians to confiscate. Public opinion in America was on the side of right. Russians bad, Georgians good, just like John McCain said. He looked presidential, experienced – a safe pair of hands. Obama couldn’t take the opposing view because Russians were cheats just like their old communist friends the Chinese who were entering fetuses in the gymnastics and diving competitions. 

Then he blew the experience card in one mad moment. McCain picked for Veep the former mayor of Wasilla. The town in Alaska that is so small it has to share its horse with a mining camp five hundred miles across the tundra. She is every right wing republican’s wet dream. A former beauty queen who thinks a good photo-op is picture of her and her cute little daughter with a dead caribou. It is not clear whether she or the kid shot the beast because both are claiming the kill. She is a anti-abortion, pro-gun, believer in creationism who belongs to “Feminists For Life”. In that case, sign me up for “Sexists For Death”.

But underestimate Ms. Palin at your peril. The liberal left are already falling into the trap of making sexist jokes about her because she is cute. They rightly fear cuteness. Non-committed independents decide American elections and they decide in the last five days. Sarah Palin can make all the political gaffes in the world and still appear likeable on November 4th. They might not care that she knows nothing of the world. If gas is still below four bucks a gallon, foreclosures are dropping off and the shit is down to shoe level in Iraq, we might have our first female president. No! It’s not possible, is it? John McCain’s late medical report is 175 pages long. That’s some kind of Alaska.

Comments

[The3rdColumn]

Your friend from California is saying what many conservatives feel about McCain's choice.

Many are saying Gov Palin is the hottest VP contender in a long time; Wasilans believe she's the most competent Wasilan you'll find, and that she's the bestest hockey Mum; etc., but these "superlatives" hardly qualify her to step in and be president in case 72-year old McCain kicks the bucket.

Tactical move but wise? Nah!

[Alex Irving]

A governor of 2 years?!? Now THAT'S real experience. Certainly not a way of an old man at death's door with (let's face it) a moderate chance of dying during his presidency if elected trying to gain the support of disgruntled Hilary Clinton supporters. Except that he hasn't as Hilary has magnanimously decided to finally endorse Obama.

Still any man who quips in response to the question "has he cut interest rates enough" says " I wish interest rates were zero; or alternatively sings "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys, then in response to the question of whether or not he thinks this insensitive asks "Insensitive to who(NB not whom)? The Iranians?"

Ah well. Roll on Obama vs. Romney 2012.