If.... when, unless an unimaginable "October Surprise" surfaces.... John McCain loses the election, it appears he'll have no one to blame but the new McSame. The McCain of 2000 would have had a good shot at overcoming the toxic Bush years by the force of his Straight Talk persona.
But then, most noticeably in the 2004 race where he literally embraced Bush and then started his pandering courtship of the religious right, McCain started trimming his Straight Talk sails in favor of what he perceived to be the prevailing voter-base wind....the Karl Rove base.... culminating a month ago with his naming of the unfitted vacuous but well-packaged Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Now in angry desperation, as he sees his chances slipping away, "McCain Tries To Push Past Palin Backlash." (WaPo)
Even after it was discovered that the RNC spent $150,000 on Silly Sarah's clothes, hair and makeup, "his campaign dismissed the latest controversy over his running mate as coming from elitists and not representing the opinions of average Americans."
What is more elitist than cloaking your VP in Saks runway-knockoffs while pretending she's "just like us."
No matter how McCain tries to spin it, he started losing his bi-partisan broad-base following when he caved to the GOP hard right that he had campaigned against and repudiated in 2000. And with his choice of Palin "a majority of voters now say McCain's vice presidential pick reflects poorly on the decisions he would make as president, according to the Post-ABC News poll. Overall, 52 percent of likely voters said they are less confident in McCain's judgment because of his surprise selection of Palin..."
At a rally today longtime friend of McCain and Barack Obama's choice for VP, Joe Biden, said after stumbling over the name of McCain that he did so "because I don't recognize him anymore. I used to know him well."
McSame has become the political portrait of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray bargained to retain his beautiful persona by having his ageing reflected only in his portrait. Untouched personally as his debauchery steals his soul, Gray's portrait turns into the disfigured, aging reflection of his true self.
The country has watched a similar ugly transformation in the portrait of McCain's campaign. Palin is but the latest cynical calculation of a candidate who traded his for-a-cause-larger-than-yourself instincts for political gain. Not a pretty picture.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
No comments:
Post a Comment