Sara, You're the Poet in my Heart

Wait a minute baby...
Stay with me awhile
Said you'd give me light
But you never told be about the fire
Drowning in the sea of love
Where everyone would love to drown
And now it's gone
It doesn't matter anymore
When you build your house
Call me home

Thank you, Fleetwood Mac, for this song, "Sara", which I find helpful in summing up my complex reaction to Sarah Palin. Its about time there was a Fleetwood Mac song for Republicans. I never much cared for "Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow!"

Are you invigorated, excited, confused, befuddled, angry about Sarah Palin? Here’s what I have come up with.

1. It’s the most significant vice-presidential pick since Henry Wallace. FDR picked Henry Wallace in 1940. It was significant because it was the first time the presidential nominee picked his running mate. At the very beginning, the VP was the person who ran for President and came in second. George Washington didn't pick John Adams as his VP, he beat him for President. Imagine: Reagan-Carter, Clinton-Bush or Bush-Gore! Later, the running mate was selected by the party. All right, historical moment over. The selection of Palin by McCain was brilliant strategy in that it:
A. Energizes the GOP base.
B. Sparks enthusiasm and interest in the entire race while reinvigorating (or invigorating) his campaign.
C. Enables GOP to be able to potentially deliver the first woman to the vice-presidency and, possibly, the presidency.
D. Working class voters all over America are looking for someone to identify with. Some of them were among the folks in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania who voted for Hillary, but they are everywhere and don’t feel connected to Obama, they admire McCain but don’t identify with him, either.
E. Perhaps, most significantly, the selection of her has absolutely driven the Obama campaign and liberal media CRAZY. Obama is falling all over himself saying foolish things and giving more credibility to his opponent’s running mate than I have ever seen anyone do. David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager is usually one cool, calm, and sharp communicator. He, too, has been making an ass out of himself raising his voice and flapping his hands perplexed over the moose wrestling hottie from Alaska.

2. I think the media has been unfair to Palin, They, and the Democrats have been "Clarence Thomasing" her–discounting her as a woman because she isn’t a liberal woman. MSNBC has gone completely off the rails but I stopped watching MSNBC before the conventions.

3. I do think Obama intentionally used the lipstick remark as a jab. It was clear by the crowd’s response to his use of the "lipstick on a pig" remark that they thought that’s what he meant. God knows they could not possibly have been smarter than him. Other surrogates of Obama also used the "lipstick on a pig" remark, so it was clearly a co-ordinated effort or talking point.

4. That said, while I guess it makes hey for the McCain camp to grind the Obama camp over the "lipstick on a pig" remark, for the first time ever I find myself agreeing with salon.com’s Joan Walsh. She is a big time, self-described liberal and feminist. She disagrees with most of what Palin believes but admires her as a feminist. Walsh believes that the McCain hoopla over lipstickgate casts Palin as a victim. Sarah Palin is not a weak, pathetic, victim. She is running to be Vice-President of the United States. She doesn’t need defending and if she does, she should do it herself.

5. That brings me to the matter of her not being interviewed. Shit or get off the pot. Let’s not play games, McCain. You picked her. All of your people, including Ridge, Romney, Lieberman and Lindsay Graham have all taken to the air waves to declare how qualified she is to be Vice-President, even as they waited to see if their noses would grow. We shouldn’t have to wait 5 minutes for her to be interviewed. The notion that she can "bypass Meet The Press and go directly to the voters" is bullshit. She keeps repeating her same lines about putting the jet on ebay and voting against the bridge to nowhere (after she voted for it).

The momentum is not going to stay with her unless she can pay her dues and prove herself as a national leader. I am getting tired of all of the hoopla criticizing her and defending her. She needs to stand on her own and the topic needs to change to more important things.

Sara, you're the poet in my heart
Never change, never stop