A Pilgrim’s Digression

As I’ve listened to news coverage of the election campaign following last week’s Republican National Convention, it has been tough to maintain even the semblance of objectivity in the wake of what looks in hindsight like nothing more than a dog and pony show.

This morning on Fox–several days after the convention came to a close–I still found myself subjected to inane stories about how the model of eyeglasses Sarah Palin wore are now sold out. However, the female host of the morning show just happened to have obtained a pair on loan from a store, and she assured us that they fit marvelously.

By the way, her eyeglasses were created by a Japanese designer, Kawasaki, and cost around $375.00. Somehow I don’t think she’ll wear them when gutting a moose.

So, I flipped over to CNN and found little changed. People have lost their mind, or at least their sense of perspective. This must be how conservatives felt in the early days of the Obama campaign, when women were fainting.

Honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can take it. There is a sense of doom that clings to the election now, like the whiff of a corpse in the trunk of a murderer’s car. I find myself wondering, “Are people really going to be stupid enough to fall for this crap?”

I really don’t know. What I do know is that from my perspective, the choice of Palin was the most cynical, the most calculatedly condescending political move I’ve witnessed in all the years I’ve been watching politics. It’s to be expected that a candidate for the Presidency will choose a running mate who either applies some brick and mortar to the weak points at the top of the ticket, or else enhances the strength of the Presidential nominee. Palin does neither.

She was chosen solely for the shock and awe value of putting an unknown political neophyte second in command to the President. She’s a mother, she’s a “hockey mom” (that term still makes me want to puke), she’s a hunter, she’s a fisherman. No one in the McCain camp proposes that she’s Henry Kissinger, or even Henry Fonda (at least he could act the part of a political wise man); what she is to the McCain camp is the tail of the dog, and we’re the dog being wagged.

She’s a distraction–a distraction from the economy and all the serious issues we ought to be debating, and a distraction from the emptiness of the Republican platform. Obama is correct in pointing out that the Republicans launched a lot of vicious attacks against him during their convention, but offered no proposals for the challenges facing America. Furthermore, what specifics Palin and McCain offer even about her record aren’t necessarily true. Her relationship with lobbyists and earmarks is not as squeaky clean as she would have people believe. These inaccuracies are going to come out as Palin gains exposure. Yet however true that may be, is anyone listening?

The roar of publicity around this woman is deafening, and with so little time until the election there is little opportunity for the shine to rub off her expensive eyeglass frames. By the time people figure out what a boondoggle they are being sold by the Republicans, McCain and Palin may have won.

In the midst of the storm over whether Ophra should give in and do an interview with her, or whether a mother with a special needs child should run for such a high level office, one thing gives me hope that the media and voters will become serious about this election once again. One thing: time.

There isn’t a lot of time, but there is enough, and Palin’s exposure is going to morph into over-exposure rapidly. I don’t think she will hold up as well as Obama, who has had time to adapt to the shifting realities of the election. She’s like a small business owner plucked from obscurity to be co-CEO of Microsoft. And she only has around eight weeks to make herself presentable to the Board of Directors.

There is a certain degree of cheering for the underdog that is bound to happen, as Palin is exposed by the media over the coming weeks, but in the end I think the majority of Americans will recognize the cynicism of McCain that led him to choose her in the first place. It is, after all, McCain we are voting for, not Palin.