Raining on McCain's Parade

Just two days after Maverick McCain succeeded in turning media attention away from Barack Obama by selecting a former high school basketball star and beauty pageant contestant, Sarah “Barracuda” Palin, to be his running mate. Gustav is raining on his parade. Over the weekend, the talk shows were full of how disgruntled Hillary supporters would go for the pretty Missy hockey mom,and how McCain’s choice would “energize” the anti-abortion, anti-environmentalist, pro-gun toting, evangelical Republican “base.” They were full of how much executive experience this mayor of a remote Alaska hamlet and governor for less than two years of a remote, barely populated state, has. They repeatedly invoked her fitness to be commander in chief thanks to the experience she, like all governors, has gained as the nominal head of her state’s National Guard. It was remarkable that they could keep a straight face – especially the snootier among them, like the pompous and (evidently) brainless George Will, denizen of the George Clintonopoulos Show.

On the plus side for McCain, he got to disinvite Cheney and Bush. But it’s now looking like his four day infomercial in Saint Paul will only barely happen. Pity the poor corporations who have thrown so much money at it! A diminished convention has got to hurt the doddering former napalmist and continuing war monger, even with his “base.” More importantly, Gustav is bound to stir up memories of Katrina, the final straw that led even the most obtuse to realize how incompetent the Bush government has been. If the Democrats succeed in identifying Maverick McCain with Cheney and Bush – and it would require some effort on their part to fail in this – Gustav won’t just rain on McCain’s parade; it will wash it away.