The thing that struck me about the Palin pick today, was how much it requires amnesia - a suspension of reality - to accept as legitimate.
[Note: I wrote this diary Tuesday, but my computer crashed and i couldn't post it. Now I see Jon Stewart has taken apart at least Karl Rove and "Papa Bear" O'Reilly on a bunch of the Palin issues! Kudos to him.]
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Yesterday's line: Experience matters. Barack Obama does not have enough experience to be President.
Today's line: "Voters should be concerned about other things" - "This woman has done more than other people in Washington to fight corruption" "She is the most popular Governor out there" "Compare experience at the top of the ticket" "Millions of women see someone they can identify with as a mother" (actual quotes from Republican analysts on CNN today, Tuesday) When pressed, republican reps cannot say "she has no experience" (As in the Campbell Brown interview). "She has experience as Commander in Chief because she heads the National Guard of Alaska."
Yesterday's line: (from McCain) "The most important qualification [for a Vice President] is that that person should be ready to be President" (rough quote)
Today's line: "She's not from Washington!" "She's ready to be President"
Yesterday's line: "I'm going to run an honorable campaign and talk about the issues".
Today's line: "I'm proud of my campaign!" (after negative, Rovian ads)
[Thursday edit]: Today McCain referred to "The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems" Maybe he forgot he had changed that line.
Yesterday's line: Drilling on the continental shelf should be banned (every year since George H.W. Bush)
Today's line: Drill here. Drill now.
Yesterday's line: No timetables!
Today's line: Time horizons.
We do not have amnesia. We remember what was said last week or last year and how it is different from today. The traditional media practically never point out these inconsistencies. It's like they are computers who ran out of RAM last night and just rebooted this morning with a clean memory. Kudos to Campbell Brown for standing out in the crowd and calling out the "experience" hypocrisy.
Every day in this election we need to call out these inconsistencies to those who miss them. Remember when they were "flip-flops" in 2004? Oh wait, flip-flops were yesterday's line.
The next Obama ads should simply show be clips showing one line after another to destroy their credibility. Just like Jon Stewart does on the Daily Show all the time, to show the contradiction and hypocrisy. It's a pattern, and most people have no memory since they don't pay attention. Flip Flop.