Friday, September 05, 2008

McCain is Running on the Amnesia Platform, But It's Democrats Who Need to Forget Sarah Palin

Arianna Huffington has a very good point.
Americans love the outsider plucked from obscurity. And Palin provides bucketfuls of the new and exciting. As long as voters and the media are caught up in the latest installment of As Sarah Turns or the Alaska version of All My Children, they aren't paying attention to the lack of solutions McCain is offering to the serious crises that face us.

Forget worrying about the economy or health care or the housing crisis -- think about how many people live in Wasilla, whether Bristol and Levi will live happily ever after, and if Sarah and her 'First Dude' really want Alaska to secede from the union.

This is why the McCain campaign wants Palin front and center -- did you notice how much time McCain spent during the speech praising Palin and how quickly the celebratory post-speech music shifted from 'Raisin' McCain' to 'Barracuda'?

And it's why Democrats need to ignore Palin, and keep the focus on reminding voters about the stark contrast between an Obama and a McCain administration. It's tempting to prime the Palin attack pump. But Obama and the Democrats do so at their own peril.

John McCain wants to distance himself from Bush, cloud the huge policy differences between him and Obama, and hope his compelling life story carries the day. Obama's job is to make sure he doesn't get away with it. Forgetting Sarah Palin is a good place to start.

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