John McCain’s campaign is pretty much a shambles right now.I would expect Simon to know that the only reason McCain is still even remotely viable is because of Palin. Her attacks on Obama's character have resonated with a lot of people. She's not "out-of-control". If anything, she's doing the work that McCain just won't do, to his own detriment.
If you don’t believe me, just listen to John McCain. His chief goal these days is calming down his crowds, not firing them up.
And that is an honorable thing to do. It may not be a winning thing to do. But it is honorable.
Sarah Palin, once seen as a huge plus to the ticket, is now increasingly emerging as a liability.
Forget that an independent legislative panel found Friday that she had abused her power and violated ethics laws as governor of Alaska. Forget that with the possibility of Palin being a heartbeat away from the presidency, McCain gives up the argument that his ticket represents experience and a steady hand on the tiller.
The real problem for McCain is that Palin is running a separate — and scary — campaign that does not seem to be under anybody’s control.
She storms around the country saying: “Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
She also says: “This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America.”
Get the drift? Obama is not only different, not only an alien incapable of loving his country, he is an actual friend of terrorists who would attack America.
The great benefit of putting Palin on the ticket, we were told, is that it would excite the Republican base. Maybe it will. But the Republican base has never been smaller. And it is insufficient to carry the McCain-Palin ticket to victory.
To win, the Republican ticket must attract a significant number of independent voters, swing voters and even some Democrats. Do Sarah Palin’s attacks really help achieve that?
Her attacks certainly appeal to some. Cries of “traitor” and “terrorist” and “off with his head” are heard at Republican rallies when Obama’s name is mentioned.
And Palin is not the only one who is fear-mongering. Karen Tumulty of Time magazine was invited by the McCain campaign to visit its operations in Virginia on Saturday. So Tumulty was there when Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick “climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden.”
“Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” Frederick said. “That is scary.”
And the effort to impugn the entire campaign because a few nimrods shout politically incorrect things is at the very least dishonest. Where were Simon's criticisms of the many idiotic Obama supporters who have disrupted McCain speeches or generally acted like fools?
I will agree that the McCain campaign is unfocused and scattered, but the best evidence of that is not what Sarah Palin is going but what McCain isn't doing. He should be firing up his base with everything he's got instead of playing this "noble warrior" role which will surely lead him to defeat. Without Palin, McCain would be 20 points down.
Politico does some good stuff but they've been pretty seriously in the tank for Obama this entire campaign. You have to read their stuff understanding that they're not an objective news organization.
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