Second Thoughts on Second Spots

Joe Biden muses on Hillary's superior qualifications as Vice President. Yes, Joe, you were actually talking out loud, not just thinking that to yourself. Your feminist, humility makes you seem like a gracious, thoughtful candidate - not. Obama has to be thinking - "Thanks Joe. You tried to make yourself look good and now I look like an idiot for choosing you, just as McCain is getting a surge in the polls for picking that goofball Palin - how can this be happening to me?" As Good As News has to hand it to you though, Joe. Thanks to your complete inability to contain a single thought in your head for even a millisecond before it comes gushing out from between your lips you were right - Hillary would have been better.

Sarah Palin is the ultimate Rove girl, an attractive but inexperienced fundamentalist Christian candidate who repels liberals like mace and energizes the religious right. Foxhole Productions is already shooting the GOP commercial for late October, the one where Sarah turns to the camera and asks:

"Senator Obama, does everyone from Harvard have a problem with Americans like me, Americans from small towns, Americans who own guns and believe in the Second Amendment, Americans who cling to religion because we believe in God? Does everyone from Harvard think that way, or is it just you Senator Obama?"

McCain's choice of Palin was not really a maverick maneuver, just a return to the Rove playbook - Get out the base and campaign on social issues that have little to do with being President. It worked twice for W. Can it wiin again? Hmmm, let's think: 1) a non-stiff as Democratic nominee; 2)no third party candidate like Ralph Nader to siphon off Democratic votes; 3) a sluggish economy with a financial system in crisis, 4) a war or two with continuing casualties and a best case ending that will create two coalition/quasi democracies that will turn into clan war anarchy or America-hating Islamic republics within months after we leave; 5) a race run in the shadow of a Republican incumbent with historically low favorable ratings. This campaign may be too tough, even for Karl Rove.

Once the initial excitement settles down, people who aren't liberals or fundamentalists will wonder whether they really want a junior high mean girl a heartbeat away from the Presidency. McCain, sometimes a real maverick and always a guy with a sense of humor, will have his own second thoughts after a few months of running with Sarah - "I can't stand being in the same room with this cocky loony, no matter how much lipstick I put on her, why didn't I just pick Tina Fey as VP?"