In my diary yesterday I pasted some quotes from a scene in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, the one where the aging, cantankeous governor, Pappy "Pass the Biscuits" O'Daniel, commiserates with his slow-witted political advisors about his fading hopes for reelection. Long faces all around.
But then his especially slow-witted son, Junior, has an epiphany:
JUNIOR: The folks seem to like that reform, Daddy. Maybe we should get us some.
Well, John McCain just went out and got himself some "reform." Clearly, his equally slow-witted brain trust decided that this year two scoops of the old vanilla (stale, sour-tasting vanilla at that) wasn't going to do it -- not when the competition was moving to that new and much improved chocolate and vanilla recipe.
But, flavors other than vanilla being a might scarce in the GOP ice cream cabinent, they went with a new (for Republicans) topping instead -- sprinkled, in this case, with a plenty of nuts.
And so we get Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska for a fairly uneventful two years (uneventful, that is, other than seeing roughly half the state's GOP establishment served with subpoenas) and before that the mayor of Wasilla, AK (pop. approximately 3, and about double that during moose season).
Obama's got to be thinking: They went and picked the one VP candidate who could make me look like a foreign policy "old hand."
Of course, as others have already noted, Palin makes Dan Quayle look like an "old hand".
Now I've never actually been to Alaska, so I'm not going to cast too many aspersions on the Icebox State -- other than to note that everyone, with no exception, that I've ever met from the Great White North's next-door neighbor (and in my college days I actually used to meet quite a few) has been either a doctrinaire libertarian or a raving lunatic. Ah, but I repeat myself.
Maybe that's just my bad luck of the draw and a product of the fringy social circles I once moved in, but if you know anything about Alaska, you know it's made a historical career out of being the Last Frontier -- the place you go either to seek your fortune or flee your fate. As such, it has always attracted more than its fair share of characters -- character in this case being a synonym for "anti-social loners."
On the other hand, like most of us I know virtually nothing about Palin herself, other than her brushes with the seemingly all-pervasive corruption in the local GOP (amply documented by Josh Marshall and the gang at TPM) and her militant Christian fundamentalist views on abortion, creationism, etc.
How that world view jibes with Alaska's libertarian ethos, and how she's managed to reconcile the two, would be an interesting story -- which is why I'm sure the corporate media whores will studiously ignore it. But something tells me it won't be too hard to paint Palin as kind of "out there" (both personally and politically) and her state as a strange alien place -- a place that doesn't quite meet the Cokie Roberts test of Americanness. (Although, since the Dems hope to pick up a House and Senate seat there this year, I suppose they'll shy away from the latter line of attack.)
In any case, if the ultimate threshold question for this election is supposed to be "normalcy," then McCain has just taken a big step outside of the box -- Palin may still be a scoop of vanilla, but vanilla with a funny aftertaste. However, while it may be a change of a sorts ("folks seem to like that reform, Daddy") it is also, obviously, a risk. McCain has picked a 44-year-old ex-mayor, with a grand total of two years of gubernatorial experience, in a state with a population of less than 700,000 (and a sane population that's quite a bit smaller than that) and wants the voters to put her the proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency.
This doesn't exactly jibe with McCain's brand image as the candidate who will keep America "safe" -- not for a 72-year old man who's had repeated bouts with skin cancer.
Whether and when and how the Obama campaign decides to "go at" Palin will be an interesting test of their political instincts and their skill with the propaganda knife. Can they define and demolish her without turning into the bullies, picking on a delicate flower of Caucasian Christian womanhood? Or will they just let Sarah be Sarah, and see what falls out of the Alaskan corruption and craziness tree? Stay tuned.
But, the politics of it aside, by picking a woman as his running mate McCain has performed at least one service: He's made it possible to precisely calibrate just how far behind the curve of history the Republicans really are -- and it's 24 years, the exact length of time since the Democrats put the first woman on a presidential ticket.
John McCain: the Republican answer to Walter Mondale.
I definitely like the ring of that.
Update 4:50 pm: Speaking of slow-witted, one of the Washinton Post's IQ-deficient political reporters, Chris Cillizza gives us this, um, penetrating analysis of the Palin pick:
The McCain campaign had make little secret of the fact that they wanted to pick a woman as the Arizona senator's running mate, believing that the rift caused by the protracted primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton gave them an opportunity to pick up scads of disgruntled women.
Cillizza may well be right that this was what McCain and his brain trust were "thinking," with the "logic" going something like this: Hillary is a woman, lots of women like Hillary, so we'll go get us a ... woman!
And of course, the fact that the candidate they chose is a militantly anti-choice, Christian fundamentalist, right-wing nut job, who is neither experienced enough nor competent enough to carry Hillary Clinton's briefcase, won't matter a bit because . . she's a woman!
Which a.) reveals how stupid they are, and b.) how stupid they think Hillary's supporters are.
Point a.) is already well documented. But I have serious doubts about the McCain's camp's belief in point b.). Unlike McCain, Hillary doesn't seem like the type that attracts the stupid vote.
PAPPY O'DANIEL: Is that the best idea any you boys can come up with? Weepin' Jesus on the cross! Eckard, you may as well start draftin' my concession speech right now.