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The Return of the Mayberry Machiavellis

THE RETURN OF THE MAYBERRY MACHIAVELLIS....Marc Ambinder reports this morning about the vetting — or, rather, lack of vetting — that John McCain and his team carried out on Sarah Palin before announcing her to the world on Friday. Despite the fact that legions of bloggers figured this stuff out within 48 hours, apparently they didn't know that Palin had actually supported, not opposed, the Bridge to Nowhere; that the true scope of the "Troopergate" scandal she's enmeshed in is a wee bit larger than she fessed up to; that she raised taxes and public debt substantially as mayor of Wasilla; that she supported a windfall profits tax on oil companies as governor of Alaska; and that she's skeptical about human contributions to global warming. McCain's team talked to very few people in Alaska who knew Palin, didn't do much (any?) archival research on her, and McCain himself had barely even met her before he offered her the job.

So why did she get the nod? Hard to say. George Bush met with Vladimir Putin for a couple of hours back in 2001 and immediately announced that "I looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul." McCain, likewise, after campaigning with Sarah Palin for a few hours on Saturday, went on TV the next day to announce, "She's a partner and a soulmate."

So sure: this is vintage McCain at work. His choice of Palin was naive, cynical, reckless, and impulsive. But what about his staff? Why did they go along?

Well, in case you've ever wondered what John DiIulio meant when he described the Bush White House as "the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis," I think this is it. DiIulio was talking about an executive staff that cared almost nothing for substantive policy, and was instead obsessed with junior high school levels of political cleverness. How will this play with the base? How will it put Democrats into a corner? How can we twist the real intent of legislation so that nobody knows what's really going on? What are the political angles? What congressional districts will this put in play?

I'd guess that the same thing is going on here. You can almost hear the McCain staff cackling in the background, can't you? Palin will draw off disaffected Hillary supporters! Her Down syndrome baby will totally sucker the base into falling in love with McCain! Joe Biden is going to have to walk on eggshells to avoid looking like a bully during the vice presidential debate! If anyone even remotely close to the Obama campaign says anything we can even remotely pretend is sexist, we'll trumpet it to the skies and the press will eat it up! Sure, maybe Palin isn't prepared for the actual job itself, but just look at the box it puts Democrats in! Politically it's genius!

Comments

If the Obama team is smart they will get some people to start loudly calling the GOP hurricane strategy for what it is - shameless politicizing of a natural disaster.

Steve B. has a great post this morning about McCain's record with natural disasters. He's been on the wrong side of disaster policy his entire career.

Obama's speech on Thursday was great, but he needs to consider what the media liked most about it - it's willingness to attack McCain's strengths (experience and judgement). It's remarkable how wobbly the GOP gets with even a little attack.

Posted by: The Lucky Sea Men on 09/01/08 at 11:39 AM Respond

Obama and Biden must immediately drop the "period" from their vocabulary.

Posted by: msw on 09/01/08 at 11:40 AM Respond

Kevin:
To quote an article in the Atlantic from several years ago: "The Democrats can't win and the Republicans can't govern." That's what picking Palin means in tbis election. The guys down at the corner sports bar are drooling. She can shoot a moose, gut and clean it, and cook you a mooseburger...all in one day. What else is there to life?

Posted by: EL on 09/01/08 at 11:50 AM Respond

The Publicans may be deserting the convention because of the hornet's nest of protest they have stirred up with their fascist, preemptive raids on houses of left-wing journalists in St. Paul. See this for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1eluuDGss

Posted by: The Conservative Deflator on 09/01/08 at 11:52 AM Respond

The Return of the Mayberry Machiavellis

Return? When did they go away?

Posted by: jimBOB on 09/01/08 at 11:55 AM Respond

We've seen - and lived through - the disaster of an administration of a President with "executive experience" at the state level. Bush had NO experience other than that at the state level. Never traveled, not intellectually curious, depended on others - neo-cons - to govern. Though, "govern" should be used sparingly.

This is EXACTLY what the McCain campaign is pitching. If/when McCain doubles over with the "big one" and goes to that Hanoi-Hilton in the sky, we will be left with a female George Bush.
Depending on the same type of neo-con and Christian fascist advisers Bush has relied on for the last eight years.

Posted by: phoebes in santa fe on 09/01/08 at 11:56 AM Respond

All true, but you're overlooking what may well have been the decisive factor: Rush Limbaugh. He's been plumping for Palin for weeks as "the new face of feminism," aparently even designed a logo for the ticket, and backs her with a slogan: "Babies, Guns, Jesus. Hot damn! This is a woman with accomplishments."

It's not McCain's staff you hear cackling in the background. It's Limbaugh.

Posted by: Kit Stolz on 09/01/08 at 12:14 PM Respond

Joe Biden is going to have to walk on eggshells to avoid looking like a bully during the vice presidential debate!

I have never understood this notion. Isn't she a "rootin-tootin" gun toting frontier woman? Shouldn't she and her followers (and all women, actually)be offended by the suggestion that the menfolk need to be gentle with the lil' sweetie.

I have heard many talking headcases give voice to this.

How stupid.

Posted by: keith g on 09/01/08 at 12:20 PM Respond

The fundamental flaw of Christianists is that they will not mistrust one another until it is too late.

Also, McCain, like Bush, is lazy.

Also, Obama spooked him into misfiring.

Posted by: Boronx on 09/01/08 at 12:25 PM Respond

Huckabee supports her. Dobson supports her. Indeed, the whole backwoods fundamentalist brigade supports her. Looks like McCain has the cracker vote all sewn up.

Posted by: Kuyper on 09/01/08 at 12:40 PM Respond

The GOP positions a radical Christocrat with no foreign policy background whatsoever to assume power, and the media falls to its knees.

Disgraceful as usual.

Posted by: Lucy on 09/01/08 at 12:42 PM Respond

She was vetted and approved... Just not by McCain.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/1/24846/28141/Front_Page/The_Council_For_National_Policy_Meets_In_Minn_Vets_Palin

Posted by: Larry on 09/01/08 at 12:47 PM Respond

Holy shit!

To rebut rumors, Palin says daughter, 17, pregnant

Out of wedlock.

Posted by: Lucy on 09/01/08 at 12:49 PM Respond

Poor girl. She's got no choice but to keep the baby and marry the father. Maybe that's what she wanted anyway. I hope so, for her sake.

Posted by: Koneko on 09/01/08 at 1:06 PM Respond

It's political genius if politicians and the political media continue to play out of the same rulebook. The Obama campaign will have to refuse to do that, be seen repeatedly to refuse, and mount a running "there you go again" critique of those who do play by the old rules. Obama may wind up campaigning against the MSM as much as he does against McCain.

Posted by: allbetsareoff on 09/01/08 at 1:14 PM Respond

Even more scary than the Mayberry Machiavelli calculations, it is clear from body language and his words that McCain has a crush on "partner and soulmate" Sarah Palin.

Posted by: CA Pol Junkie on 09/01/08 at 1:22 PM Respond

Is she now, or has she ever been, a member of the Alaska Independence Party? If she puts Country First, which country does she mean? (See GOS!)

Posted by: gbbalto on 09/01/08 at 1:24 PM Respond

According to the corporate-owned mass media:

Any criticism of John McCain's record or positions on any issue is disparagement of his military service and his time as a POW and is beyond the pale.

Any criticism of Sarah Palin's record or positions on any issue is sexist and is beyond the pale.

This is what the McCain campaign and the openly partisan right-wing media have told their allies in the corporate-owned mass media to say, and it's what the fawning, obsequious courtiers of the corporate aristocracy -- the highly-paid "on air personalities" of the corporate media -- will obediently say.

Posted by: SecularAnimist on 09/01/08 at 2:08 PM Respond

Kevin and others,

Here is my idea of how Palin found herself suddenly on the GOP ticket

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/pawlenty-vs-palin.php

Thanks

Posted by: t.k. on 09/01/08 at 4:27 PM Respond