Needlenose

Putting my Joe/Jill Dumbass cap on for a second, I think Palin’s appeal is the “Ms. Smith goes to Washington” glamour the campaign is projecting – a no-nonsense ‘mom’ who will treat those misbehaving Congressionals like a bunch of naughty children with some small-town ‘tough love.’

This ‘mom’ thing has been a very effective ablative armor, repelling the initial round of personal attacks (she’s an unfit mother working instead of mothering her litter, how could she bring a Down’s Syndrome kid into the world, what a bad mom her kid had a teen pregnancy etc), and rousing sympathy from the very trailer-home and run-down suburbs swing voters that Obama needs to attract – you don’t go after Motherhood and Apple Pie!

This is in affect a rehash of the old compassionate-conservative positioning that worked so well for Shrubya in 2000, only in a new, prettier, lipstick-smeared package! More believable because this is Mom we are talking about here!

So I think the proper mode of attack is to go after the ‘compassion’ message. I mean would Mom make rape victims *pay* for their post-attack forensic medical exams? Palin sure did. I sure hope we see additional aggressive airing of dirty Palin/McBush laundry of this nature by the Alaska Mythbusters taskforce in the weeks to come!

The petty vindictive Palin needs to be highlighted at well – surely Mom wouldn’t abuse her position of authority to pursue a personal jihad against an ex-family member. Why isn’t Monegan on the campaign trail with the Mythbusters?

Setting up this ‘framing’ (my god I’m starting to sound like Swopa) of Palin would pay off huge dividends if/when she blows it on the campaign trail once the “no-question’ bubble is burst – the Obama camp needs to setup a situation were we see an unscripted Palin. For example – they should insist on a pure Lincoln/Douglas segment of a debate between her and Biden in an open town hall format. Otherwise, if they go with the debate format from the last two elections – she will stick to script and stay Ms. Smith with Wikipedia.