Palin Sequestered From Press?

Sequestered? Several blogs are reporting the McCain campaign is putting the word out she will not be available to the press between now and the election. Really? Here's what I think this is really about: expectations. This is so Rovian and transparent. Once the MSM has had a while to raise hell and enough time passes to give Palin enough room to take a crash course in McCain economics and foreign policy a surprise appearance will be announced either on FOXNews or a print interview with the Washington Times/NRO/WSJ and she will easily clear a very low bar and everyone in the MSM will tell us how wonderful she conducted herself. I swear Rove can make Machiavelli look like a member of the Peace Corps.

Jeez.

Sarah Palin's RNC Speech

Last night was a moment for Palin to introduce herself to the nation and show she is just an average American mom who happens to be the Governor of Alaska. Maybe not someone you'd like to have a beer with (ugh, I hate that insulting comparative) but rather someone you could relate to on a personal level. I guess she started off doing that but as the speech went on (...and on and on) she pivoted and went after Sen. Obama. That's what nationally known V.P. candidates are supposed to do. Sen. Biden was nationally known. Yes, he did a brief biographical intoduction of himself but it was perfunctory and then he lit into McCain and the GOP. As for Ms. Palin she is compelely unknown to voters who don't follow politics like we do and tune in to see what all the media frenzy is about.

I was going to take the time and review the speech myself but over at fivethirtyeight.com contributor Nate pretty much spoke for me in this nice final analysis:

"The way to evaluate a speech like this is by what people are going to remember in the morning, and the only thing that people are going to remember about this speech in the morning is that she went after Obama - a lot -- and that at times it seemed fairly personal. It was almost kind of fun at first -- I don't think people saw it coming, and she got three or four really good lines in. But then it became too much -- sarcastic and mean spirited. Everything else -- the outsider stuff, the family stuff, the media critique -- is going to be forgotten about. In fact, the Republicans will look like whiners if they go after the media after that speech.

I don't think the Republicans are doing as good a job as the Democrats were doing about pairing their speeches to the strengths of the speaker. It's as if they wrote seven or eight speeches, and drew lots to determine who would deliver which one. So you have Mitt Romney -- one of the wealthiest men ever to run for office -- critiquing east-coast elitism, and Mike Huckabee -- who is an economic populist in disguise --critiquing big government, and Sarah Palin -- who voters don't know one iota about -- critiquing Barack Obama's biography."

I could not agree more. As far as I'm concerned this new tact of taking on the MSM is a deadender for them. We on the left complained for awhile during Ronald Raygun's tenure and then threw their hands up at the end of Clinton's two terms and created our own infrastructure.

Nate's post drew a comment that I think really sums up the outcome we can expect as the campaign unfolds:

"Steven said...
Nate,
I think you are right. My wife, who knows next to nothing about Palin (just like the rest of America...), watched the speech and told me, "She sounds really mean." I guess that's one feminist Palin's not winning over...."

We'll see but I think she just pushed away the independent female vote whom she was supposed to woo by her selection. Instead she just fired up a shrinking, rabid evangelical base with a martyr complex. I thought it was ironic the night before Bush referenced the "angry left." Last night with Palin following Guiliani it looked like a pretty "angry right."

Tracy Flick? Try Regina George

I was browsing the blogosphere last night after Palin's speech and was struck by the comparisons to the Tracy Flick chracter from the 1999 movie Election with Reese Witherspoon playing the aforementioned character. I'll have to admit to not seeing that movie.

For me, Palin's snarky tirade last night with an effervesant grin at the end of her speech reminded me of the movie character Regina George from Tina Fey's 2004 triumph Mean Girls. I feel this is a perfect representation of charm and vibrance masking total disdain for those who don't "measure up" (i.e. community organizers). The perfect metaphor for the social Darwinism conservatives love to practice, (i.e. Palins line item veto for funding pregnant teen safe houses.)

Enjoy:

The Sarah Palin Rabbit Hole of Distraction

Sometimes my issue with the so-called "librul media" is the same issue I have with the liberal blogosphere: focusing on planted distractions. In the case of Sarah Palin's daughter and her under aged pregnancy I have to wonder. Remember that African American boy in Atlanta serving time for his under aged sexcapade with a minor two years his junior? His name is Genarlow Wilson, who at the time was 17 years of age and had engaged in an oral sex act with a 15 year old minor. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his "crime." If Levi Johnson, the self described 18 year old "f***ing redneck who will kick your ass if you mess with me" boyfriend and baby daddy to Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah, who is under aged what does that say about the contradictions in our society regarding teen aged sex? There are different standards for white teens vs. black teens when it comes to sex? This doesn't just suggest it, it screams it. Was she 17 or 16 when the act took place. As she is 5 months pregnant and a birth date can't be confirmed only the family knows for sure. But if the sex act took place while she was under aged either at 16 or 17 years of age someone needs to tell me the difference between Genarlow Wilson and Levi Johnston. I think I already know.

But even this isnt the issue though it should be. It hasn't been brought up once in the media because of all the attention being paid to poor little Bristol and her condition. No the real issue isn't even her or abortion or Roe v. Wade. It never has been. The right to life movement uses Roe v. Wade as a rabbit hole for the media and many in the liberal blogosphere to chase when the real issue is something else: Griswold v. Connecticut.

It has always been about the real target of the religious right: contraception. They want states to have a right to outlaw the use and right to purchase birth control aids, devices and medications. THIS is real the issue. It always has been. Both the media and liberal blogosphere never seem to focus on this. Yes, they've touched on the issue in context with the religious right's culture war they want to engage in. But it is never brought up as the real focus and target. As for Bristol Palin, she is the daughter of a politician who aggressively advocates not just the outlawing of abortion even in the case of rape or incest but someone who aggressively pushes abstinence only education instead of sex education. Ms. Palin even goes further with her record as Governor of Alaska:

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live."

That is some real compassionate conservatism there. This clearly lays bare her thinking on this issue. The religious right has suddenly found the rapture with this pick by McCain and its no wonder. They clearly want to legalize and institutionalize punishment for pre-marital sex. They want to get back into the bedroom and act as missionary soldiers while sitting on the shoulders of their vengeful and wrathful Old Testament God. With Sarah Palin they have that and more.