McCain is now the secondary candidate

[MindMatter]

He may thing he's scored a huge coup by getting some excitement into the race with Palin. But now McCain has a serious dilemma -- actually 2 serious dilemmas.

1) Can he afford to campaign without her? This is a real problem. What happens if they split off and she starts drawing 10,000 people and he draws 150 per event? That will be ... AWKWARD. The campaign is sensitive to this very real possibility. They had planned to split over the weekend and quickly changed strategies to keep the two together. The positive spin on that is that McCain (with Palin) is drawing bigger crowds than ever. But the reality is that they are terrified of how it will look if she significantly outdraws him --- BECAUSE ...

2) She is clearly the candidate of interest on that ticket. Right now they are enjoying a honeymoon of sorts, but this will inevitably get back around to the question of McCain's age and feebleness versus her readiness to take over.

Clearly McCain is better off with Palin than he was without her. But I'm just curious how others see this thing playing out. It seems to me there are some really big land mines just ahead for McCain.

Any opinions or projections out there?

[WinkyDink]

1. The Charles/Diana Dilemma, without either the legacy or the charm.

[TwilightGardener]

2. LOL! Perfect.

[lamp_shade]

3. He really just doesn't care. He would have picked BoBo the clown if

he thought he'd help him win.

[terrya]

4. I agree with this.

I think we're not going to see a lot of solo appearances by each. There is zero excitement about John McCain by himself. It would be an embarrassment to see McCain drawing far few crowds on his own compared to Palin.

[Lerkfish]

5. Good analysis, let me add one more problem

3) they're using up a lot of energy in spin to coverup her non-vetted skeletons, instead of spinning against Obama.

of course, this may be outweighed by the fact that republicants have always been low-information voters, easily duped.

[Clio the Leo]

6. Yep.....

Despsite surviving five and a half years in a POW camp ...... (have you all heard the news! McCain is a war hero! lol) ..... he has allowed a 44 year old former beauty queen and self-confessed hockey mom to chop his balls off.

It's a sad, sad thing.

Or maybe not. ha ha

[MindMatter]

9. I guess that is at teh heart of my question

Does there come a time in this process where it is obvious to all the he-men out there that McCain got his balls chopped off -- and he is OK with that if it lets him be called "Mr. President" at least one day before he dies.

Maybe that characterization is a little extreme, but the male ego is a powerful thing. It seems to me there is a fine line between men seeing him as a stud who is hanging with hot young Caribou Barbie versus an old guy who gave up his balls to ambition.

How can the Obama campaign help the men of this country think through that one without being too obvious about it?

[Zombie2]

7. My goodness...

Thanks! Really big land mines, for sure!

:kick: & Recommended

[formernaderite]

8. I suggest we stop talking about her

The retarded attacks on her family, rife with rumor had the Hillary effect. Remember when the right attacked her after the Lewinsky mess? Her numbers sky-rocketed...it was exactly what the GOP didn't want.

Palin is now, not only the candidate of interest on their ticket...she's THE candidate of interest. Unfortunately we live in a society of celebrity...in that world all publicity is good.

It's better for us they attack Obama... the American public always rushes to defend those unfairly targeted.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

10. Like Sonny and Cher.

Who had the better solo career? ;)

[MindMatter]

11. Or is it more like Hugh Heffner and his bunnies?

Cher made her career and has been in control of the key decisions. I think we all know that whoever is on the GOP ticket is bound to be a puppet. I'm not saying that this would be one-way exploitation of Palin. She would benefit in a big way -- just as Hef's girls do. But they do have to agree to give up a big piece of their soul in the deal. This gal would do that in a heartbeat. As far as I can tell, she is completely unprincipled.