PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE WOMAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN: SARAH PALIN IS THIS ELECTION'S WIZARD OF OZ

This is an argument for a change of focus.  As I began to write it all I could think about was the Wizard of Oz, the fake behind the curtain who had everyone believing he could save them all.  When he finally presented gifts to all but Dorothy, it sounded horrifyingly like the tactics of the current "wizard,"  nominee Palin, and her boss.  I am as angry and uneasy as anyone over the nomination of Sarah Palin but I think it's time to stop now. 

This morning I heard Paul Begala say on MSNBC that every day McCain isn't talking about the economy, he wins.  That he can't win ON the economy so if he keeps distracting the voters and the press he will be better off - a premise supported by the current poll numbers.  Begala also kept comparing Palin to the "shiny object in the water" on a fishing line that makes a fish take the bait.  I think he's right.

The issues of this election are, as we all know, so enormous and scary that it may be easier to keep focusing on the governor, but that will not win the election.  We need to help remind people of the real issues - the devastating effects of the sub-prime crisis and it's sequel, investment bank failure so evident in the past few days, the state of the economy generally, our sinking competitiveness in education and the  tragic decline of many of our schools, the attempts by the Right to place (with hat tip to Auntie Mame)"braces on our brains" and of course, Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, energy and infrastructure. 

We're in a mess.  It wasn't caused by pigs or lipstick or tanning beds or even community organizers -- it was caused by the people currently in office who want four more years and are Orwell-ing us into giving it to them.  This community has enormous impact and knows how to raise a ruckus (If you don't think so, mosey on over to the League of Maternal Justice!)  Let's get some message discipline here, leave Sarah to others and push the issues.  We're going to kick ourselves if we don't.

A version of this post appears on Blogher.com.

Comments

[Cynthia Samuels]

Excellent point Stephanie. And her role as a woman and pure "base-pleaser" is central. It's just that that wasn't the way people were covering her. I hope that now with the financial crisis we're finished with all that anyway. Thanks for taking note of these factors; you're right, in my opinion.

[Stephanie]

I think there's a fine line here. For the most part, we're focusing on the petty parts of Sarah Palin and her politics, but I think that there needs to be some exploration of who she is, what she stands for and why she was selected - and it wasn't about her experience with the energy commission in Alaska.

[kittysmith]

Obama & Biden, their spokespersons and us, the supporters need to stick our fingers in our ears and sing "la, la, la" to block out the media's focus on the Republicans' "funny" soundbites of flash and trash and hammer hard on the economy, healthcare, environment, energy issues and the war in Iraq and Afganistan. Palin isn't the issue, but we're letting her be. Or maybe I'm just cranky 'cos the power's still out from Hurricane Ike...

[Karen S.]

Fantastic post. The more we focus on Palin, the less we focus on the issues--and the more the media focuses on Palin, the less it focuses on Obama. Let's do what the parenting experts tell us to do when we're trying to extinguish an unwanted behavior in our children. Ignore it.

(I'm not saying ignore the issues; I'm just saying don't pay so much attention to Palin. I'd like to think that if we ignore her, she'll go away, but I somehow doubt that. . .).

[Mary Margaret Hansen]

What a terrific post and what a good metaphor for what's going on. Boy, do we have work to do.

[Velma]

I couldn't agree more. I'm tired of people taking the bait and getting whipped up into a righteous furor when there such critical issues at stake. Not just for this country, either - for the world - and yet, Lipstick-on-a-pig-gate is all we hear about.

[Jen]

My thoughts exactly. Sarah Palin isn't any more tragic a VP choice than Dan Quayle, and once Obama wins the election, there won't be much reason to care whether she's dogsledding across Alaska in a sled with a built-in tanning bed and book burning apparatus, stealing condoms from teenagers and putting lipstick on pit bulls.

Did you see the great SNL sketch with Tina Fey as Palin, btw?

[Dan Atkins]

Great post