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It's been 11 days since John McCain announced that he had chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. In that 11 days, the Democrats have been falling over themselves trying to discredit Palin, who at the time of her national exposure, appeared to be an easy target.
Since then, we have seen the Presidential race close to a dead-heat. Admittedly, the Republican ticket has been aided by their convention, but the question that remains is whether or not the Republicans upward momentum will continue into the remaining 8 weeks of the contest.
The Democrats' strategy made sense. Palin was an unknown to the national media, and could easily be expected to wither under the unrelenting attention granted by this historic presidential race. It would likely be a coup-de-grace for the Obama campaign if McCain was forced to admit his folly in choosing Palin as a running mate.
Now, it seems, the Democrats strategy has backfired. Unable to unseat Palin as the Republican VP nominee, the lingering memory of that first week of attacks has caused the Republican base to rally behind their embattled sweetheart any time the "liberal media" dare question her. While this can be overcome in time, with 56 days left in the campaign, it remains to be seen how capably the Democrats can criticize Palin without further galvanizing her support.
Unlike Rick Davis, I believe this election is (or at least should be) about the issues, and the more we concentrate on the issues, the more it plays to the strength of the Democratic ticket. Our economy is in shambles, we're stuck in a quagmire in Iraq, and we face one of the greatest challenges man has ever faced in the area of climate change. The Republican ticket is so very wrong on all these issues, and the sooner and more often we can point this out, and the less time we spend trying to play "Gotcha" with the decoy Palin, the better our chances for victory in the fall.
