Perhaps the biggest problem for John McCain, self-proclaimed “maverick” (retch), is that he has bucked his own party for so long that he has incurred the enmity of many in his party. However, in an election year where “change” is so essential, something (perhaps the only thing) that Democrats and Republicans agree on, putting McCain at the top of the ticket was the only real choice Republicans had.
But most of them don’t really like him. That’s why support from the Republican base for him is so tepid.
As Frank Rich put it yesterday in his NYT editorial, McCain is simply a “placeholder” for the Republicans; someone to hold the office until he can be replaced with someone more palatable.
From Rich’s editorial:
…the hard-right G.O.P. base that never liked McCain anyway and views him as, at best, a White House place holder.
So, who is more palatable?
Enter Seer-ahhh Palin.
Actual yard sign photographed in Saline, Michigan Oct.2nd, 2008
Palin, who now calls herself “vice president” (who’s ‘presumptious’ now?) (wait, NEBRASKA???), has referred to a “Palin-McCain Administration”. Could she be planting not-so-subtle cues into the subconscious brains of Republicans?
With the impending bloodbath likely to erupt as both campaigns start dragging out the “guilt by association” big guns – Obama with Ayers, McCain with the Keating Five and his lobbyist connections – Palin is being portrayed as politically “pure”, someone so outside of Warshington politics that she has no evil connections to terrorists, greedy corporate CEOs or political tar baby lobbyists. With McCain fading “into incoherence and irrelevance” (to quote Rich again), hockeymomjoesixpackmavericylipstickedpitbull Seer-ahhh is now moved to the top of the ticket in the minds of many Republicans.
John McCain is simply a “placeholder”.
Here’s the good news: Seer-ahhh is not helping their ticket among independents, the undecided segment of the electorate that is likely to decide this election in many states. She is increasingly seen as a lightweight, a Dave-like character who plays a vice-president on teevee. Even in her homestate of Alaska, Seer-ahhh draws fewer people than Barack Obama. Running a Palin vs. Obama campaign is a losing gambit for Republicans.
It puts McCain in the position of being a placeholder for a pet rock.
I’m just sayin’…
