Give the man credit. His choice did what he wanted it to do.
First and foremost, it made everyone stop thinking about Obama’s speech the night before. That was important since the speech was so overwhelmingly powerful and appealing. ANYTHING that took people’s minds off that event was a positive for McCain.
But there is more ...
-- after the jump --
Second, it got all the progressive bloggers off track. Instead of diaries about Obama, the blogs have been filled and bloggers obsessed with Sarah Palin. Indeed, most of the blogs begin with a euphoric "Great Big Mistake, McSame" theme and go on to do just what he wants, spend time on Palin while using up one-a-day diaries on something other than support for Obama/Biden.
Third, and I expect a LOT of disagreement with this, blogs totally miss the point about why McBush chose Palin. It wasn’t to get the disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. That wasn’t going to happen and, whatever you think of him, McShame isn’t that dumb.
Why did he pick her? For her beauty queen looks. Who will that appeal to? MEN.
What is the group that Obama has most problems with? MEN. Will they be attracted to Palin? Yes. Will they care about her politics? No. The men who haven’t been drawn to Obama before now will be distracted by the "fox" on the other side. Am I right? Let’s see what the polls show. Already the polls have shown that the premise that McPOW’s alleged strategy of getting women to move to his camp isn’t working. But we haven’t seen any polls that show what effect it has had on men.
Fourth, the religious fanatics of the far right are deliriously happy that McQuestionableFaith has chosen one of the "chosen". He has alleviated their fears. And if down the line in a few weeks Sarah’s "family obligations" cause her to bow out because she needs to take care of her newborn child with special needs, the faithful will still be faithful.
Fifth, suppose Holy Joe Lieberman were to fill a sudden need for a VP running mate? Would that again change the calculus of the election? Indeed it would. Florida, which has probably now moved closer to Obama would be very difficult again, for example.
Finally, desperate times demand desperate measures. Should polls show that Sarah’s choice is starting to become a liability, my fourth and fifth points will become more likely to come into play.