Sarah Palin ShowsJohn McCain Her Fangs

US Election Campaign: Sarah Palin Shows John McCain Her Fangs

Sarah Palin should be the young and fresh outsider who complements the 72 year old experienced political player, John McCain. Since she needs tutoring in foreign and domestic policy, McCain will make rapid strategic decisions without her. But Palin has tasted blood. She does not want to allow herself to be marginalized.

Sarah Palin, who is John McCain’s running mate, had to read a newspaper to find out some very important information about changes in her team’s campaign strategy. This was apparent when McCain terminated his campaign against Barack Obama in Michigan. Obama is too far ahead in Michigan for McCain to catch up.

Palin was not included in the decision. McCain did not inform her once. Palin said on television on Friday that “I read that this morning, and I fired off a quick e-mail and said, ‘Oh come on, do we have to?'” She clenched her dainty fists and got that ready for action-look which has become her trademark. “Todd [Palin’s husband] and I, we’d be happy to get to Michigan and walk through those plants of the car manufacturers. We’d be so happy to get to speak to the people in Michigan who are hurting because the economy is hurting.”

One wants to believe that she is capable of doing something like this. Palin is more popular than her boss. John McCain is a loner who knows all the moves, who was tortured as a prisoner of war, who broke up a marriage, and who stood on the political abyss three times. But he cannot find the right message about the economic crisis. He perks up when the subject turns to Iraq, but he needs some time just to describe the banking crisis for what it is.

There are real problems with his thinking about war and peace. He is contemptuous of people who have their own agendas and want to get to the top without paying their dues. According to McCain’s standard, Sarah Palin, like Barack Obama, has accomplished little if anything worth noting. She is fresh, sassy, and natural, which are all reasons why he chose her, but her vision really is completely devoid of any defining features. With the Michigan decision, McCain wanted to show Palin who was the man of the house.

The Republican team is showing cracks. That’s no surprise. It’s not Iraq, but rather the economy which has become the main issue. Obama is now ahead in the polls of eight states where a majority of voters went for George W. Bush in 2004. In the middle of September, Obama had a majority in only two of these states. If the numbers stay the same, Obama will become President on November 4th. It’s now do or die for John McCain.

In this situation, he is confiding in only a few advisors and his wife Cindy. Sarah Palin is not being included. There is a photograph from McCain’s campaign bus during the beginning of September which is symbolic of this situation. John and Cindy McCain are sitting on the right deep in conversation with advisors. Sarah Palin is sitting on the left giving her baby a bottle and staring into space. She looks like a hitchhiker they picked up.

However, Palin does not have any desire to play hitchhiker and fig leaf. She shows ambition and is beginning to talk about many of the duties of a vice president to suggest what she intends to do in that role. Her public protest against McCain’s decision to withdrawal from Michigan was the appearance of a self-confident partner, who was chosen for a supporting role, but who, many observers believe, would be good for the primary role.

This showed itself on Thursday after Palin’s debate with Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden. The Fox News Channel gathered a group of undecided voters for each debate. Nine days ago, after the first debate between McCain and Obama, two-thirds of the group was for Obama. His national poll numbers went up in the following days. After Palin’s appearance, the test group favored Palin by 90 percent.

It did not matter to the undecided voters that Palin did not know the name of an American general. She did not have a ten point plan for the financial crisis. What she was looking to do was to inflict the same kind of wound that Bill Clinton made on President George H. W. Bush in their 1992 debate. At that time, Clinton extolled the optimism of his hometown, Hope, Arkansas. In her debate, Sarah Palin praised her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. “We have to get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington. I think we need a little bit of reality from Wasilla Main Street brought to Washington, D.C.”

She said it almost piercingly, but with a saucy wink of the eye. Palin and Biden went around each other cordially in their debate. There was calculation in doing so, but there was more. On Friday, Joe Biden’s son reported for deployment to Iraq, just as Palin’s son had done three weeks earlier. Their debate had the highest television ratings of an election broadcast since Clinton’s duel with Bush.

The emergency bailout package to support the credit market was adopted the next day by the House of Representatives, by a vote of 263 to 171. In the Washington way of doing things, the bill grew from a three page document to 420 pages. In the United States, lawmakers are allowed to add provisions to bills which have nothing to do with the legislation other than to secure votes for passage. Because the goal was so important, many lawmakers made sure their dearest wishes came true.

The bill now includes the following: for 700 billion dollars, the government will take over toxic loans and bankrupt banks, but in addition, hospitals will assume the costs of mental health care. The Democrats were in favor of this. They also forced through tax credits for environmental projects. The Republicans got a suspension of the alternative minimum tax for small businesses. The bill extended tax breaks both for Puerto Rican rum and for the owners of automobile race tracks. It was an orgy of gluttony.

The veteran, John McCain, suspended his campaign ten days earlier to force the bailout package through Congress without the extra pork. He failed exactly like George Bush did and also like Obama did. After a tough battle, the lawmakers themselves agreed on a compromise, with the Democrats being the driving force. Obama can at least say that his party saved the country from the worst. He, Joe Biden, and McCain accepted the compromise as members of the Senate.

There are still many voters who consider the bailout as a tax payer funded rescue for millionaires. Sarah Palin is not a congresswoman, and she was the only candidate who did not cast a vote for this bailout. If the page should again turn in favor of the Republicans, who act out of principle, a new broom will sweep clean. Sarah Palin wants John McCain to feel her influence in such a case and not just be a fig leaf.