rssMcCain Cedes Spotlight to Palin
Thursday, September 04, 2008 at 5:21 pm
- 2 Comments
I’ve been surfing the Intertubes for what seems like hours, determined to find new and interesting news about Sen. John McCain. It turns out this is more difficult than one might think.
Ever since McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, it’s been all-Palin, all-the-time. Granted, I’m guilty of contributing to this, but I’m trying to do my bit to change the subject.
Then it occurred to me, this is almost certainly by design. McCain is so last month.
Aside from picking Palin, he really hasn’t done anything genuinely newsworthy in weeks. The press is bored. They follow him all over the country, only to spend most of the day on a plane or in a hotel. When he does give an interview, he’s grumpy. Palin is new, and more important, she is relatively unknown. She represents a blank slate upon which reporters can fix their gaze.
BAGNewsNotes
It’s a win-win for the McCain campaign. It owns the headlines; yet the candidate doesn’t need to do anything. The old guy gets a break from the spotlight and doesn’t have to worry about generating bad press. He’ll have to go back to work for an hour tonight, but he’s got a built-in boost from a solid day of pundits and partisans fawning all over his running mate. Palin stays relentlessly on message — because she doesn’t take questions.
That’s how it’s likely to stay. Marc Ambinder asks the question: will she do interviews? At some point she’ll have to — but the McCain camp will no doubt delay that as long as possible. At least until the buzz wears off. There’s no benefit putting her into risky, unscripted situations when she controls the news cycle simply by reading a speech they wrote for her.
Eventually, the novelty will wear off. But the longer the focus remains on Palin — the better for McCain.
2 Comments
Comment posted September 4, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
If the McCain camp is smart, they'll book Palin on every non-threatening talk show possible, from Jay Leno to larry King to Good Morning America to Ellen Degeneress. These shows are for entertainment purposes and all the questions are pretty softball. She knows how to stand her ground and will come off great. Meanwhile millions of people will see her in a very positive light. America wants someone “like them” and Palin can pull this off very well, in my opinion.
No, I'm not a fan of her politics and I definitely am Obama vs. McCain, but I think McCain made a very shrewd choice. Did you see Tom Ridge give a talk tonight? Oh, my god, that guy could put anybody to sleep.
It will be an interesting month and I predict Palin will emerge as a star. She'll win over a whole lot of people. And the negative backlash will only make her stronger. Obama's only viable strategy will be a frontal attack on issues (which is as it should be). Him appearing on Bill O'Reilly today was a great move and he came across very strong. Even O'Rielly was impressed.
Comment posted September 5, 2008 @ 2:05 am
If the McCain camp is smart, they'll book Palin on every non-threatening talk show possible, from Jay Leno to larry King to Good Morning America to Ellen Degeneress. These shows are for entertainment purposes and all the questions are pretty softball. She knows how to stand her ground and will come off great. Meanwhile millions of people will see her in a very positive light. America wants someone “like them” and Palin can pull this off very well, in my opinion.
No, I'm not a fan of her politics and I definitely am Obama vs. McCain, but I think McCain made a very shrewd choice. Did you see Tom Ridge give a talk tonight? Oh, my god, that guy could put anybody to sleep.
It will be an interesting month and I predict Palin will emerge as a star. She'll win over a whole lot of people. And the negative backlash will only make her stronger. Obama's only viable strategy will be a frontal attack on issues (which is as it should be). Him appearing on Bill O'Reilly today was a great move and he came across very strong. Even O'Rielly was impressed.
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