Palin has party revved for victory

by Lisa Van Dusen | Sun Media | 9/7/08

The Republicans are, to swipe a phrase from that other campaign, all fired up and ready to go. They are more fired up than they've been since Ronald Reagan's Morning in America in 1980, only this time their hopes are pinned not on a controversial former California governor but a controversial Alaska governor.

The GOP, per its convention, is running a hiding-in-plain sight, anti-incumbent incumbent campaign that essentially has it running against itself, which isn't half as painful as its sounds and which, in many corners of America, may just work.

In St. Paul last week, Sarah Palin won the hearts and hopes of a party that had, six months ago, so resigned itself to losing this election that it was willing to hold its nose and run the bete noir of both the far-right opinionators and the party's Capitol Hill gang, John McCain.

But Palin, the 44-year-old cheerily telegenic, ideologically orthodox vice-presidential nominee, delivered a speech Wednesday night that was such an Obama-knocking stem-winder that, watching the ecstatic faces in the crowd as she spoke, you could almost hear what they were hearing: "Wah wah wah WIN...wah wah wah WIN..."

For McCain, who along with Obama had dangled the dreamy prospect of a post-partisan, issues-oriented campaign, Palin is more than a breath of fresh air, she's a sarcastic, bad-cop Scud missile aimed at the Obama caravan of hope, and that will mobilize the conservative base of the Republican Party more than any culture war flashpoint ever could.

For all of us who thought Wednesday morning that McCain had picked Palin on impulse, it was clear by halfway through her speech that we were wrong: If this was an impulse, it wasn't a reckless one, it was a tactical one that would relieve McCain of the burden of attacking the Obama/Biden ticket at the expense of his integrity brand.

In his speech Thursday night, McCain promised an end to partisan rancor, which, in the home stretch of a dead-heat campaign with a newly unveiled attack weapon, is the Rovian-reversal version of, "Let the rancor begin!"

The second flank of the Palin deployment is the pre-emptive demonization of the media to discourage drive-by hits against the national novice that might expose her inexperience on foreign policy and national security issues.

MEDIA BATTLE

That battle began in Palin's speech Wednesday night, when she established the fact that the media are against her for a Republican base that loves to hate the latte-drinking liberal elites of the Eastern establishment punditocracy.

"I've learned quickly, these past few days," Palin said, "that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone."

As a short-term tactic, running against the media may be as disingenuous as running against your own party and its own president, but it's a sure-fire crowd pleaser.

At the convention, the battle lines were already being drawn on the cable sets, with rattled Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman looking like he'd just been mugged as he recounted tales of intimidation tactics by Republican operatives against anyone questioning Palin's credentials.

The most vociferous complaints about coverage seem to be aimed at the reporting on Palin's pregnant daughter, a story which, if it had broken about a female Democratic running mate, would have been on a 24-hour loop on Fox News.

The celebrity glossies have had a field day, notably the "Babies, lies and scandal" cover of US magazine. If John McCain wanted to use "celebrity" as a political slur, he should have factored in potential push-back from the industry stakeholders.

As a long-term strategy, running against the media rarely works because sooner or later, even a Republican press secretary may want the New York Times to return his text message.

But the sudden possibility of snatching back the change tag and all the energy that goes with it can rewrite the rule book, even the white-out- filled rule book of the most tactical operatives around McCain.

As his campaign manager, Rick Davis, told an interviewer Friday morning about the likelihood of Sarah Palin doing Meet the Press, "We're going to do what we think we need to do to win. Access to the press is not directly related to success in politics."

From the campaign of the man who once cockily referred to the media as his base, them's fightin' words.