The Sunshine Empire

I don’t know how much longer this use of Sarah Palin as the victim thing is going to be the political narrative for the McCain campaign. The pundits this morning are going back and forth on the newest celebrity on the campaign trail. They picked this woman, and then immediately began the indignation at the media actually paying attention to her. The Republicans pilloried Joe Biden as taking away from Obama’s message of change, then seem shocked that people feel the Palin pick changed the entire narrative from the McCain campaign. While McCain’s speech was nothing but a laundry list of old guard Republican stalwart ideas, the rest of the convention was played out as if the Republicans were the opposition party to the White House. Watching both conventions would confuse someone not aware of the party affiliation of the current President.

The Republicans have made it clear that they are using Palin’s selection to stoke anti-media paranoia among the Republican base. After a distinct campaign McCain seems to have come to the decision that they will fight for this election in the Rovian manner of base solidification that gave George W. Bush two terms. McCain this week even hired the campaign aid that was responsible for the scurrilous whispering campaign during the 2000 South Carolina primary insisting that he had fathered an illegitimate black baby. But the political irony is, McCain is now defending a scantly experienced celebrity and not running against one.