No matter what happens nine days from now, there is only one sure winner: Sarah Palin.
That Barack Obama will be a winner, unforeseen circumstances aside, is about as sure a thing as Michael Phelps beating Karl Rove in the 200 meter butterfly. (But it's still possible that he could be a loser.)
If McCain-Palin wins, McCain and Palin are both winners. Case closed. (But in that case either the unsuspected has occurred in the interim, or the repercussions — a much larger latent racism that went below the radar? voter disenfranchisement on a grand scale? — will be profound.)
If McCain-Palin loses, McCain is the only real loser. Palin may be "blamed" by some in the media (though many will say McCain would have lost even if he had made a safe choice like Tim Pawlenty — still a favorite with evangelicals — given the state of the economy), but only by indirection: it will be McCain's judgement in choosing Palin that will be part of the real blame. McCain will go back to the Senate for the final two years of his fourth term, could revive his former reputation, and even run again for Senate in 2010.
But Sarah Palin will still be a winner.
Conservatives may blame all sorts of things — liberal media overload? McCain was still too tied to Bush and the economy? — but they will not blame Palin. She will be the new Idol of the Right. Cable channel news discussion will swiftly shift to the Republican nomination for 2012: Sarah Palin vs. Mike Huckabee. She will consume(costume) lots of air(head) time on America's two premier right-wing Christian channels: Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and Fox News Channel (FNC).
Liberals, too, will still have Sarah Palin. (Tina Fey's comment that she can hang up her Sarah persona after the election if McCain loses? She'll be back, baby!) For someone who has gone to the Beehive for hairstyling in Wasilla and Out of the Closet consignment shop for clothes in Anchorage1, she will still be fodder for John Waters-esque risqué.
Sarah Palin is a drag queen dream come true?
Sarah Palin is a winner even if McCain is a loser?
You bet'cha.
(Wink.)
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1. Maureen Dowd (The New York Times, 2008/10/26): A Makeover With an Ugly Gloss
Sunday, October 26, 2008
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Have visited for the first time. Like your poetry a lot. We read so much about your forthcoming election here in UK and are quite puzzled by it all. I have not read one blog for McCain - yet everyone seems to think it is touch and go who wins. Call and see me sometime - I put poetry on now and againm when the spirit moves me.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that personality trumps principles sometimes in the US no matter what they say or believe.
Obama has the thoughtful principles.