Katrina vanden Heuvel: The Sarah Palin Smokescreen

[marmar]

from The Nation:



The Sarah Palin Smokescreen
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 09/04/2008 @ 11:58am




"Here's the deal: Palin is the latest G.O.P. distraction," Bob Herbert wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday. "She's meant to shift attention away from the real issue of this campaign--the awful state of the nation after eight years of Republican rule. The Republicans are brilliant at distractions."

Herbert's right on target. Barack Obama honed in on that point in Denver too, "If you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things."

On cue, Sarah Palin attempted to paint an absurd caricature of Obama in her speech at the Republican Convention last night: "What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world."

More than anything, this election should be about the big issues of our time--ending a disastrous war, restoring America's reputation in the world and building an economy that works for more than just the very rich. The challenge for Democrats is to frame these issues in a way that connects with traditional American and progressive values, exposes Republican callousness and extremism, and in doing so trumps the GOP's political marketing which cynically and cleverly plays on symbolism. As George Lakoff wrote, "Just arguing the realities, the issues, the hard truths should be enough in times this bad, but the political mind and its response to symbolism cannot be ignored..... Democrats, in addition, need to call an extremist an extremist: to shine a light on the shared anti-democratic ideology of McCain and Palin, the same ideology shared by Bush and Cheney. They share values antithetical to our democracy." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/354368

[L. Coyote]

1. Every one stare at the navel, the 17-year-old navel, you are getting sleepy,

This is the point I have been screaming, to little avail. We should focus on Palin, but only on the real issues, war, corruption, earmarks (she was the Queen of Pork until they needed to defeat one of their own to hang onto Murkowski's chair), the economy, Big Oil, the environment, her politico-religious rapture philosophy, and after all that, her experience and how she has performed in her previous positions.

BIG REC!

[nolabels]

2. More than anything our culture runs on sound-bite tabloid journalism

I am not too sure some of the johnny-do-gooders are too hip on how to float a boat. Like i subscribe and read the Nation but sometimes that better shot is with a short and quick with a little spice :shrug:

[Fumesucker]

3. "give you more orders from Washington"..

Orders like "You will bear that baby after your daddy impregnates you"?

Those kinds of order?

[radfringe]

4. more than innuendos regarding a lapse of moral/family values

who's baby was it, and who is having a baby now, extra-marital affairs... smoke and mirrors to reduce the election about personalities

the more the smears, the more palin looks like a victim. so far the basis of the mccain-palin campaign outrage is crying "sexism" and displaying Palin as a victim

look - the repubs didn't expound outrage over questions of palin's decision to give a speech and fly back to alaska when her water "broke / leaked", they embraced the unwed pregnant teen, and even if the extra-marital affair is true - the repubs will find someway to spin it into a positive.

troopergate, and a past history of firing people who stood in her way is just the tip of the iceberg. If the "investigation" into troopergate does show wrong doing (i.e. misuse of power) the repubs will find a way to spin it into a positive - that's assuming the results are released before the election - after the election...who cares, they'll bury it.

questions that aren't being answered:

- who pressured mccain to select palin? he wanted either ridge or lieberman. it's more than just pandering to Pumas or evangelicals, that palin is a woman and an evangelical is just icing on the cake

- what are her connections to oil? why did her so called oil foes donate to her campaigns?

But since Mrs. Palin leads a major oil-producing state, that industry is one of her top donors. She collected nearly $13,000 from lobbyists who represent oil and gas industries in her primary and general campaigns, according a review of her campaign donations and 2006 registered state lobbyists. Her campaign also collected donations from lobbyist employees of most of the major oil companies, including BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Chevron USA Inc., ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. and Shell Oil Co.
--snip--
But her donations from the industries are just a drop in the oil barrel compared with the $1.5 million Mr. McCain has collected from the industries in his campaign.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/01/palin-lobbyist-ties-include-oil-firms/

FOLLOW THE OIL SLICK: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3930616&mesg_id=3930616

[sam sarrha]

5. the october surprise this time will be McLame drops out "JUST BEFORE" the election an unknown pretty...

boy will run without time for all his corpses to rise in the swamp..

[Faryn Balyncd]

6. vanden Heuvel has it RIGHT.....We need to pound them on the ISSUES.

[Dinosaur13]

7. Obama's job is harder. He's sticking to the facts.

How much easier it is for McCain/Palin to make things up and keep repeating the same lies that have already been exposed. When journalists reported the campaign lies in the past, the networks would hold them accountable. Not so much now.

[Mesteryo]

8. we should hit them on issues

But we need to also counter their propaganda that they are real Americans and Obama isn't. We need to show the truth about Obama, that he's more of a typical American than Palin and McCain.

We can hit Palin by showing voters that she is a very radical conservative and Obama is a sensible moderate. This is exactly the tactic Clinton used against the Rethugs in the 90s.

We can't just focus on issues and allow them to convince voters that conservatism is as American as apple pie. Image is as important as issues.

[davidwparker]

9. I agree with this. I really don't care to hear about the children. It should be

focused primarily on wrapping * around McSame. Secondarily, it should be what a reck Palin is as a VP choice and would be second in line upon McSame's demise. I chuckle at "moose burger," but that could backfire if people see her as an underdog and "adopt" her and by extension, McSame.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Guilty but I can think of two or three maybe four things at the same time

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[windoe]

12. K & R let the tabloids do the dirty work

she is a nightmare, check. But she seems to be sucking our brains out around here lately.

This is how the RW derails the intelligencia, she is like a mental virus, and an endlessly fascinating puzzle that will never be solved--but it is WASTING PRECIOUS TIME!!

The question remains, how to defeat the Republicans without being caught in this smokescreen?