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Barack (Go Sarah) Obama just has had his pocket picked by the least likely suspect in North America, John (This Won’t Take Long, Did It?) McCain.
The nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as Vice President on the Republican ticket permanently deprives Mr. Obama of his most appealing asset, the campaign-long claim that his race makes him unmatchably unique.
By being forced to share the I Am Different shelf with Sarah, the marketability of Mr. Obama suddenly has been drastically reduced by 50 percent.
He is different. But she is, too.
The shrewdest Presidential campaign tactic in decades clamped handcuffs onto the sobered Obama camp, whose operatives would have scratched their clever heads, which I think is an impossibility when ‘cuffed.
Who Stole My Bullets?
Over the weekend, Obama staffers were deep in retreat. In a vault. If the Northridge Earthquake, heaven forbid, had made an encore appearance, the frozen strategists would not have noticed. Their ammunition vanished in a single, unanticipated announcement. What can be their beef about losing this round: “We were out-thought”? They can’t blame Florida, Ohio, Al Gore or global warming. They had the three most useful bullets removed from their main gun, and now they have nobody to protest to.
• Change You Can Believe in. That card was taken away because they can’t argue that Mr. Obama’s race is more unique or worthy of voters than Ms. Palin’s gender.
• Altering the room temperature during the Vice Presidential debate. The most undisciplined of the four candidates, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden, had been salivating since his selection over the prospect of going mouth-to-mouth with his Republican opponent, who already was deemed inferior even though unknown. Now the wild man will have to behave like a choir boy against the formidable Ms. Palin or be deemed a bully for picking on a girl, which he loves to do.
• Emotion vs. intelligence, or Ms. Palin’s slender resume vs. Mr. Obama’s invisible one. Democrats, no doubt, are just as smart as Republicans. But, like a drunk passing a tavern, they seldom can resist the temptation to go low and play on emotions instead of deploying their minds. Subtleties trip them almost every time. The dominant Obama camp response to Ms. Palin was, “You told us experience was crucial, but she has less than our guy.”
If you are not persuaded by the logic that the lady is running for Vice President and the deficient Democrat is running for President, consider that Ms. Palin has run a small-town government and a whole state while Mr. Obama has been boss over nobody. Mr. Obama’s loftiest attainment appears to have been as a community organizer. He has been running for President during most of his term as a U.S. senator. Neither has he , attached his name to legislation that anyone has unearthed.
He Spoiled Fast
With mercurial speed on Friday morning, Ms. Palin and Mr. McCain, those charismatic chefs, deftly turned Mr. Obama’s supposedly prime rib performance before 84,000, into a stale snack, slightly flatter than a dried-out pancake. For dessert, his vaunted poll bump was blunted.
Mr. Obama lost another delicious opportunity to recover his footing this morning.
After snoopers learned that the Palins’ teenage daughter is pregnant, the governor and her husband issued a blunt, 131-word yes-it-is-true statement. Once again, those clever Republicans stabbed rumor-mongers on the left in their devious little hearts.
With admirable artfulness and enviable courage, Todd and Sarah Palin said:
“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that, as parents, we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”
Surely it pained Mr. Obama to be smacked in the face with such startling personal candor, unaccustomed as he is to sharing the same room with such a degree of honesty.
Still Too Early
Far too many unpredictable, uncontrollable dynamics — resembling fireflies around a campfire at the edge of a forest — will be in play throughout the remaining 64 days for the Republican ticket to issue a final forecast this early for Election Day.
But at least Ms. Palin and the under-rated Mr. McCain have redrawn the once smiley lines on the formerly giddy faces in the Obama camp. They are forcing their still unproven rivals to sleep one eye at a time.
