Obama & Co. must take high road on Palin
Let others question experience, keep focus on McCain, Bush
Leave her alone. Let it go. Don't even think about going there. It's a setup. It's a trap.
I wanted to shout that advice to the Barack Obama campaign Friday, but somebody on the television was telling me it was already too late: Obama's people had reacted initially to the news of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's candidacy for vice president by belittling her credentials.
For Pete's sake, there's no reason to do that. Let it happen on its own. Let the media do the dirty work. Heck, some of her fellow Republicans will do the job.
Treat her with respect. Pretend that you're above it all. At worst, say you're like everybody else and don't know anything about her.
Don't even bother with the opposition research. Any swimsuit photos from the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant will come out on their own.
If and when they do, please feign disinterest.
Thank goodness they hadn't said anything dismissive on camera before reconsidering the strategy in time for Obama's first public statement, which was cautiously restrained.
Sure, John McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate is such a calculated, cynical ploy to win Hillary Clinton's voters that it seemingly shouldn't succeed.
But the best way to allow it to succeed is to treat Clinton's voters like they can't figure it out on their own. The one that lives in my house sure didn't need anybody to draw her a picture before she was shouting her indignation into the phone -- and that was before she even knew about Miss Wasilla.
But remember, there are a couple of different types of Clinton voters out there this year: the fairly liberal ones who really believe in the empowerment of women and either liked the New York senator or didn't like the way she was being treated, and the others who gravitated to Clinton's campaign because they were not, shall we say, comfortable with Obama's candidacy.
Palin gives them the reason (excuse?) they needed to vote for McCain, assuming they weren't already there. Now they won't be voting AGAINST the black man. They'll be voting FOR the woman.
They can make history by voting Republican. They don't need to vote Democrat to do that anymore.
And experienced or not, don't underestimate how well Palin is going to stack up in a comparison with Sen. Joseph Biden. OK, he's got the foreign policy experience, but he's got loads of baggage, too, as the epitome of the Washington talking head. The good thing for Obama is that Biden looks fairly solid as a conventional veep choice at this point, while her selection strikes many as downright odd.
Too much of that reaction, though, is predicated on the experience factor, which only draws attention to questions about Obama's own credentials. No matter your personal opinion, I don't think you get very far in a political context by arguing that a woman who spent most of her adult life as a homemaker has no experience. That's dangerous ground. Folks will form their own opinion.
Did you hear anybody talking about Obama's acceptance speech Friday?
Maybe for about five minutes before the news about Palin started to spread.
Give the McCain campaign credit for at least this much: They sure know how to change the conversation.
For Obama, the strategy has to be to keep the attention on the top of the ticket, where it belongs, instead of re-creating the dynamic of the woman candidate under attack.
Allow Palin to be the diversion that distracts from McCain's campaign, not Obama's.
The important comparison for Obama is with McCain, and his other running mate -- President Bush.
The undercutting of Palin will move ahead on its own. It was well under way before I could finish this column. Check out this quote from Palin's home state reported by the Anchorage Daily News:
"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"
The words of some disgruntled Democrat? No, that's Alaska's Senate President Lyda Green, a fellow Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her with news of Palin's selection.
Obviously, there are some internal Alaska political feuds at work there, which may actually be to Palin's credit. But it feels a little too much like our problems in Springfield.
Then there was Rush Limbaugh gushing about the Republicans having "the babe" on their ticket.
He just wishes he could talk her into taking off her glasses and letting down that ponytail.