The Palin gambit is pretty clear now. They intentionally selected the least-qualified candidate.

[TwilightZone]

It's starting to make sense. They picked a complete nobody who was utterly unqualified to be president, much less VP.

Step two is to convince voters that Palin = Obama (from an experience standpoint, a comparison that we all know is ridiculous) so that Obama looks like a lightweight. The media and the Republican pundits are already doing exactly that.

Step three is to discount Obama as equivalent only to their VP candidate and, therefore, inferior to their presidential nominee.

Stay tuned for a flood of "well, Palin isn't running against Obama, McCain is" statements from the Republicans shortly.

I hope that the average voter is smart enough to see through this little charade.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Yup.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. Additionally:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6922531&mesg_id=6922531

[TwilightZone]

5. Agreed. The bar is lower than ever.

I didn't think it was possible for the bar to be set lower than it was for George W. Bush. Looks like I was wrong. As I said in another thread, if she shows up at the VP debate and doesn't faint, she'll be declared the winner.

[BklynChick]

3. that's what I've thought and stated all along. It's not going to work, though. The Dems. need to

keep pushing the judgment and temperament argument, though and get off experience. She's so obviously unqualified and she wasn't elected.

[TwilightZone]

19. Re: temperament

After those speeches last night, perhaps someone can explain to me why WE are the ones portrayed as angry, bitter, and vindictive! :crazy:

[woodsprite]

4. Then we need to remind them of that first. n/t

[DinahMoeHum]

6. They went PERSONAL last night. BAD MOVE if you're trying

to win over Independents and other fence-rail sitters. That toilet-mouth tone of theirs last night may have just pissed off any and all "undecideds" and brought them over to Obama-Biden's side.

Plus, it fires US up even more and makes us more determined to crush the Republikkkans like a bug on November 4.

:nuke:

[TwilightZone]

13. Negative campaigning works.

No one knows it better than the Republicans. People claim to detest negative campaigning, but many of them still buy into the BS and vote accordingly.

You're right, though. It woke us up to the fact that November isn't going to be easy and that the race is a dogfight. Better now than too late.

[Sugarcoated]

16. Not always

I don't buy that meme. I think it works if other factors are there, like, with Kerry, he just wasn't likable and authentic to fence sitters and indies, they didn't know him, thus, the negative ads maybe helped Repubs a bit, but it wasn't as effective as they claim. Obama's passed the sniff test, he's unflappable, he stands up for himself but in a grown up way. He's passed the sniff test. Negative, especially too much negative, can backfire. Her tone was condescending and she had a "know it all" look to her, she wasn't LIKABLE. That's key.

On edit, I remembered that the negative campaigning against Kerry, the swift boat smearing, that was very effective, but that thing went back a long way.

[Virginia Dare]

30. We'll see if it works for a woman though..

it didn't seem to work too well for Hillary. I think people will look to her to be an "America's sweetheart" type, but if she goes too shrill she will turn a lot of people off. She can't have it both ways.

[TwilightZone]

32. The media will play a role in that.

Early indications are that they're buying her shtick, so it will be interesting to see how long the honeymoon lasts.

That being said, her speech was remarkably snide and sarcastic, and there already seems to be a bit of backlash developing in the press. If the reports that the McCain camp is going to shield her from the press are true, they'll turn on her pretty quickly.

[Forkboy]

35. Less and less.

It killed Healey when she ran against Deval Patrick for Gov here in Mass. It didn't help Hillary or Romney or Rudith in the primary. It's one thing when both sides are engaging in it, but when it's just one side, as it is here, it looks awful, and people quite often are drawn to the victim, not that attacker.

[TwilightZone]

36. Maybe people really are getting tired ot it.

The public always claims that they don't want negative campaigning, but then stuff like the Swiftboating of Kerry turns out to be effective.

Maybe that's changing. Maybe people won't tolerate it anymore. I certainly hope that's the case.

[Forkboy]

37. I hope so.

It still is effective, sadly, but I think people really are getting tired of it. It was one thing in the 90's when our biggest concern was which way Clinton's penis leaned, but with wars, a sucky economy and the like, I think people want solutions, not insults.

[ramapo]

7. Appeal to the lowest common denominator

It seems the message is we have a candidate that is just like you (or maybe your next door neighbor) and that is why you should vote for her.

I would not vote for myself to be VP. There's nobody on my block qualified either. There's nobody in my town of 13,000 that is qualified. Perhaps there's somebody in my county of 1,000,00+ but I'm not sure.

Leave it to the republicans to make the argument that being smart and well educated is a bad thing.

[TwilightZone]

40. Re: smart and well-educated

That has, of course, been the recent pattern. Gore and Kerry were both declared too intelligent to be president.

[Maven]

8. .

[Maven]

9. This is why Biden needs to take her on ASAP.

[TwilightZone]

21. He definitely can't wait until the debate

It could be a *long* month.

[Apollo11]

10. Sarah Palin is viagra for John McCain's poll ratings

By selecting her, McCain has been succesful in distracting the media and the public from the fact that he is offering 4 more years of the same.

Now we have all fallen into the GOP's trap by talking about the candidates qualifications and experience. If experience is all that matters - then McCain beats Obama.

Luckily Obama and Axelrod have seen thru McCain's little game and are fighting back - starting tonight on The O'Reilly Factor! B-)

[TwilightZone]

14. I'm really curious to see McCain/Palin gets a bounce.

There already seems to be an undercurrent of backlash where Palin is concerned, and it'll be interesting to see if her cynical, sarcastic, smartass style ends up turning off more people than it convinces.

[predfan]

11. Win- win for the neocons. If McCain -Palin wins, and they could, the neocons own them.

If they lose, Romney is clean for 2012.

[TwilightZone]

12. That's an interesting point.

I originally thought that Palin was essentially a throwaway candidate for similar reasons - keep Romney, et al, available for 2012.

[Virginia Dare]

24. I suspected as much too when Romney announced yesterday..

seems pretty unprecedented to me, to already announce you're going to run before the race is even over. If the Bush cabal really wanted to keep a lid on these scandals, they could.

[TwilightZone]

26. I missed that.

Didn't realize that he'd announced already. That does seem pretty bizarre, considering that he would presumably be running against the ticket he is currently (allegedly) supporting. He's either conceding '08 to us or his support of the R ticket is transparently thin.

[Virginia Dare]

27. Yep, he was pretty blatant about it..

basically says he's supporting McCain because he doesn't want to burn any bridges, but he's primed for 2012.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/conventions/27802169.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

[TwilightZone]

33. Interesting.

His support of the ticket looks a little...tepid.

[seabeyond]

15. no.... they were just stupid and now they are scramblin to justify. n/t

[TheKentuckian]

18. The qualification argument is always stupid

If a person isn't up to the task they will let you know. Give them enough rope to hang themselves.

[Virginia Dare]

25. Obama has written two autobiographical books..

he's been in the public eye for four years. We know a lot about him and his life experiences. We know virtually nothing about this woman.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. unfortunately the average voter will vote for Palin

the average voter listens to the MSM

[TwilightZone]

20. They may be seeing through it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6924654&mesg_id=6924654

We can only hope!

[Virginia Dare]

22. Plus she's the "female" trojan horse..

make "history" by naming the first female to the GOP ticket, who just so happens to be so far on the extreme right, she would do nothing to improve women's rights, in fact would most likely roll them back.

[TwilightZone]

28. Agreed.

If the story that Dobson was involved in the vetting process is true, they simply looked for the most conservative, religious-right R they could find that just happened to also be a woman.

[Virginia Dare]

29. I think that was the beginning and end of the process, yes...n/t

[LynneSin]

23. They selected a set of ovaries thinking we women vote for 'ovaries only'

And that's a major fucking insult to us women!

[TwilightZone]

31. More specifically, he picked Mother Of Five.

Not only was it a transparent attempt to garner the women's vote by default, it's shameless in its "family values" pandering.

[nutshell2002]

34. No offense to Hillary supporters

but this was never about you. It was about turning out the base pure and simple; anything else will be considered icing on the cake. I can only imagine how bad McCain's internal poll numbers actually are. Obama has thus far been smart enough not to get drawn in to the 'experience' argument. Keep it about issues and keep tying McCain to Bush. I'm very cautiously optimistic.

[barack the house]

38. I go with Randi Rhodes theory she is there to keep Cheney vice president.

[TwilightZone]

39. Huh?

Sorry, hadn't heard that one. Does she think McCain will win, dump Palin, and make Cheney VP?

[stevietheman]

41. I am confident the Obama campaign is ready to respond to this transparent bullshit. n/t

n/t

[Bigleaf]

42. Obama HAS to ignore Palin. We go after McCain & tie him to Bush. She is a nobody. Biden can deal

with her come debate time. Don't play their game. They want to put Obama at her level. Fuck'em!

[backscatter712]

43. It's an easily sidestepped trap.

Obama just needs to brush off his shoulders, get the media back on his track, and demand some discourse on the issues.

Meanwhile, we in the blogosphere tear Sarin limb from limb.

[TwilightZone]

44. "Sarin"

Very nice.

[backscatter712]

45. The perfect nickname for such a toxic personality! n/t