Novelty Act

By Ron Beasley

Joe Gandelman points out that the McCain campaign is getting a bump from the American Idol vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  But can it last for two months?  Novelty acts grow stale.  She is little more than more of the same with a pretty face from the mysterious north.  She continues to use the same lies and even the WSJ is calling her on them.  Over at Newsweek Andrew Ramono points out that repeating the same lie over and over again isn't working like it once did.

That said, the most interesting thing about today's give-and-take is not that Palin and McCain are misleading the public. In politics, that happens all the time. It's that the Internet--and, through the Internet, the Obama campaign--is forcing major media outlets to repeatedly reject the Bridge to Nowhere deception. In the past, Time and NEWSWEEK and the Times and the Post would've run a thorough factcheck the first time the falsehood surfaced. But then they would've ignored subsequent repetitions. We've already covered that, they'd say. It's old news. Meanwhile, the McCain camp would keep airing the same ads in swing states across the country--reaching millions of credulous voters who'd never read the original fact-checks. But now sites like TPM are (in their own words) forcing "the same news orgs that debunked the original Bridge to Nowhere falsehood" to "aggressively stay on McCain and hold him accountable every time he and his campaign repeat it." That's a certain kind of progress.

And there is still more problems on the horizon - the Religious Right got their candidate but they are still not happy.

McCain must embrace Palin's beliefs, evangelical leader says

Her faith is one of the reasons many evangelical Christians are excited about Sarah Palin's addition to the Republican presidential ticket, but the Alaska governor's evangelical beliefs have also drawn scrutiny.

Evangelicals are closely watching whether the McCain campaign embraces Palin's religious views or shies away from them, Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, told CNN.

Perkins sat down with CNN's John Roberts on Tuesday to discuss how the vice presidential pick's faith could influence the presidential election.

Roberts: For a couple of decades, she was a member of the Pentecostal Assembly of God church. Six years ago, she changed to the Wasilla Bible Church. I read an article in which one of her former pastors suggested [the McCain campaign] may be playing down her faith because there may be some misunderstanding about her Pentecostalism. What do you think about all of this?

Perkins: Obviously people, the polling data would suggest people want a leader or leaders that believe in God [and] pray, and I think there's some sense that there's a greater accountability there. But I think the campaign, John, is at a critical point. John McCain made an incredible selection. He has turned around the campaign that I think was moving south, and there's enthusiasm, excitement and hope among social conservative voters.

But ... the next few days, next couple of weeks will be very critical because as you pointed out, her faith has become an issue. It's being attacked, being used as a weapon against her. People are watching. It will be very important how the McCain campaign handles this. If they become defensive and run from it and try to hide the fact that there is this element of faith, then I think it's going to turn off social conservatives, evangelicals, orthodox Christians.

If they say, "Hey, why should someone have to check their faith at the door and move towards the base," I think it's going to energize, you know, the socially conservative voters more. It's very important how they deal with this in the next few days.

The McCain campaign must either chose to please the Perkin's Taliban and lose the independents or try to avoid the issue and lose the Religious Right.  And Palin's religion could cost the campaign Florida.

Koch backs Obama, calls Palin 'scary'

Koch said he'd visited six states for Bush in 2004, primarily Florida, but also several others. ("Why they sent me to Iowa, I don't know.") He said he'd be happy to campaign for Obama "if they ask me to."

Koch is a member of a set of secular, swing-voting Jewish Democrats who may have been pushed away by the selection of Palin, and his endorsement may be a marker of an opportunity for Obama to strengthen his campaign among older Jewish voters in Florida.

Once the novelty wears off expect to see the polls shift back to Obama.

Comments

[Peter]

Yes Mr. Beasley, novelty acts certainly do grow stale.