still trying to wrap my head around it

Bear (bare? (that can't be right, can it?)) with me. M's first day back at school is today -- W00T! -- which means that soon I'll have my brain back. Or as back as it will ever come.

Still, a question, one that Scott and I were debating last night --

Is Sarah Palin's VP thingy a result of poor vetting and judgement on the part of McCain's campaign (Scott's take) or do the Repubs have some devious plot in mind (like one of them wheels-within-wheels bits of higher-level strategy) that would make her canidacy the perfect choice (my take)?

To put another way - the Hub thinks they have done something stupid. I think that it appears stupid on its surface but that there might be a larger game being played here that would make this seemingly stupid move into a stroke of brilliance.

Thoughts?

Comments

[Lee G]

I heard filmmaker Errol Morris say something interesting on some NPR show once. He was asked (by Terry Gross?) if he was a believer in conspiracy theories. His answer was, in effect, that he worried more about the lack of conspiracy. That is, he worried that people didn't plan and collude nearly enough in regard to, say, something like the Iraq War. There may have been some kind of conspiracy leading up to it, but there obviously wasn't nearly enough conspiring in regard to what to do afterward. I'm sure that they picked Pallin with some reason in mind, but I think that they just didn't think through how it was going to look to people other than those to whom she's supposed to appeal directly.

[Tim]

I think it's both. They didn't vet enough, probably, but they chose her for strategic reasons -- i.e. to appeal to swing-voting women and to ardent social conservatives.

Now, why they couldn't have picked, say, Kay Hutchison -- someone with unquestioned expertise, I mean -- is beyond me.

[matthew]

How about "cunningly stupid"?

[Trish]

I'm with Tim.

I also hoping that any pro-Hilary, anti-Obama voters are remembering why they agreed with Hilary, in light of the whole pregnant teen thing.

[Melanie]

I *want* them to have done something stupid. I *fear* that they have done something smart, the twisty, conscienceless offspring of unwed parents that they are.

[Elizabeth]

Yeech. I think it's stupid if you're us, and I think it's brilliant if you're part of the Republican Party's lowest common demoninator, who either don't notice or don't mind that they keep being taken for a ride every four years.

[Heidi]

I think I'm with Elizabeth. I know some Republicans who think the pick is the most brilliant strategic move. Ever. But, I just don't see it. I see her as a Big Oil shill who's somehow pro-family values and teaching abstinence but not birth control (despite her own daughter's obvious need for just that information), but is outside the Beltway to counteract the Obama outside-the-establishment-ness. I guess when you want to pick the pro-life, pro-guns conservative from the list of possibilities, you go with ... the pretty one?

[Jupiter]

Just when I think I have the entire situation figured out...I go and change my theory into something completely different.This has happened several times in the past few days. The end result is that I'm extremely confused.

My kids went back to school today.Maybe now I'll get my brain back,too?

[Katy]

I'm with Melanie. I really, really want for it to be just plain stupidity. But I'm really, really scared that someone knows something I don't.

[PL]

In short, I agree with you, A.
But I think I'll ask some of my Republican theatre friends (yes, there is such a thing; it freaks me out) for their impression.

[matthew]

The truth is that this has been the plan all along: get the oldest man in history elected president, and when he dies in his first 100 days, another neocon takes the wheel.

[Adrienne]

I'm leaning toward Melanie's take -- but the idea that matthew poses makes me wonder if that is the true endgame. And then I throw up a little bit.

And I have Republican theatre friends, too. Makes my head hurt. Heck, my dad, who comments here, is a Republican and does theatre. (He seems to be Republican more in terms of economics and is left-leaning in terms of social issues. And by "left-leaning" I mean "doesn't want the government to legislate morality and that consenting folks should be able to do whatever they want," which I totally agree with.)

Still, I think most Republicans are equally puzzled by Palin. Sadly, it's that small but vocal neocon/fundamentalist pocket that makes me tar the whole party with the "scares the crap out of me" brush. Because that small group is the one who is the best at getting out their voters. And, in the end, that's what this race will come down to.

[gemini]

She was picked to energize the base. That worked.

I think she will turn off a lot of independents, but McCain is going to do the reaching out to them, as is obvious from an advance copy of his speech.

It might work. I'm doubtful.

Oh, and that energizing the base thing? It also energized Obama's base - he's raised $10M since her speech last night.

[trish]

Here's what Gloria Steinem thinks: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story

Here's hoping she gets through to the PUMAs.

[Emily]

I wanted to believe it was just stupid, but I couldn't sleep last night after reading this:

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/19/chris_hedges_on_american_fascists_the