Animals trying to be elusive use all sorts of tricks, but one of the most common is to use a highly visible tracking signal to delude predators.
Deer and rabbits have white tails that flip up when they run. Robins and Juncos have white feathers that only show when their tails are flared. Predators zero in on the visible signal, and then, when the deer stops or the robin turns and perches, the visible signal is hidden, and the predator momentarily loses sight of what he was pursuing.
Bullfighters use this phenomenon, encouraging the angry bull to focus on the red cape, holding it in front of himself, but then stepping aside as the bull follows the cape. Perhaps its horns even tear a bit of the fabric, but the matador is unscathed.
Sarah Palin is using this technique. Her red cape is her daughter's pregnancy, the perfect tool for her to distract us from the real problems with her selection.
The Palin pick has a half dozen swirling controversies:
- A troopergate story much worse than Bill Clinton's
- The Alaska Secession story
- Her fake resume as a pork-fighter
- Her close relations with corrupt Alaska Republicans
- Her nearly perfect lack of knowledge of national and world affairs.
- The no-vetting/McCain the gambler storyline.
Of all the controversies, one is least likely to make voters dislike her, most likely to elicit sympathy for her, and simultaneously most salacious, most likely to suck in the media - the teen pregnancy story.
Here's Salon, pursuing the red cape with all its energy (two top-side stories when I checked) -- using Palin's daughters name, they've dubbed the story Hurricane Bristol.
The Chicago Tribune's "Surprise Pregnancy" story has given columnist John Kass the chance to paint Palin as a miserable victim of media unfairness -- Leave Kids Alone.
CNN's number one story on Palin is a maudlin piece by an "iReporter" who supports McCain, believes the pregnancy should have been left private by the media, and then recounts the trials of her own experience as a young mother. Difficult, no doubt, but how this is relevant to whether Sarah Palin would be a good.
You have to understand -- McCain's people weren't worried about the teen pregnancy problem when they heard about it. Hell no, it's the perfect red cape to wave, leading the media right past the other stories, which in a week will have dissipated in a cloud of dust. Right now, we need to end the focus on pregnancy, and call everyone's attention to her inexperience, her abuse of power (troopergate) and her typical pol's fakery (her newfound opposition to the bridge to nowhere.)
I urge you, when you see the Republicans waving a red cape, don't get distracted. Keep the focus on what's important.