The thinking is this: The broader media will give Sarah Palin a wider reach in audience. That’s the Republican thinking. The National Review believes that’s more of a hindrance than a help since her message doesn’t exactly sit with voters who don’t shoot moose, wear pistols to hockey games, and wear matching lipstick with her pet pig. I think The National Review has a point. Here’s the Republican takeaway - next time.
Ordinarily, the GOP doesn’t need pointers running a smooth campaign. Their plan has been the same since the Nixon Parade. Donald Henry Segretti was the man behind the re-elect Nixon campaign and was notorious for his slash-and-burn tactics, which worked. He was a master and Karl Rove was his eager protege.
Karl Rove’s drive to make G.W. Bush a “war president” largely succeeded. But the back draft has been a huge decline in Bush’s popularity. That hasn’t stopped John McCain’s campaign managers from using the same dirty tactics. This time they won’t work as a better organized Democratic Party political machine is in place to elect someone who actually has some electability. If the McCain political machine had capitalized on Palin’s strength by positioning her in friendly territory to discuss her hot topics with her base then the mainstream media would be forced to use the soundbites from those interviews, giving Palin a larger appeal to a broader audience. As it is, the broader audience will see her as she really is and not how the GOP wants her to be seen. The lesson to learn for the GOP is to take this suggestion into the next election cycle. Politics is about to get dirtier.
