Obama Implodes
By Michael Reagan
September 11, 2008
Once upon a time it was inevitable that Hillary Clinton would be the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. It didn't work out that way.
A few weeks ago, it seemed inevitable that Barack Obama would win the presidency handily. It isn't working out that way.
A few weeks ago, it seemed inevitable that John McCain was in for a drubbing. It hasn't worked out that way.
In political campaigns things can always change, of course, but as of now it appears that John McCain is headed for the White House. That's not inevitable, but at the moment it looks as if he's headed for the winner's circle, thanks largely to his choice of a running mate who has electrified most of the electorate.
The Obama campaign's stunned reaction to this totally unexpected development has been at first to ridicule McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, then to underestimate the effect she was having on the McCain campaign, and now to go all-out in attacking her.
Obama's reaction to this sudden turn in his fortunes has been nothing less that sheer and visible disorientation. It's obvious that he simply doesn't know which way to turn, and his confusion has led him to launch a sleazy campaign to destroy Gov. Palin's reputation -- no matter what it takes -- before she destroys his presidential hopes.
A prime symptom of his disorientation was the ill-advised comment about putting lipstick on a pig. The old self-confident, sure-footed Barack Obama, safe in the cocoon woven about him by a worshipful media, would have understood the consequences of making such a remark and the almost certain probability that it would be a boomerang that would smite him on its return trip, and would have thus avoided it.
This disaster, however, is nothing compared to the catastrophe that is waiting in the wings as a result of his scorched-earth attack on Sarah Palin. Unable to grasp the obvious fact that the media's ongoing effort to slander Palin is backfiring, he has allowed his campaign to dispatch an army of lawyers and private investigators to Alaska to dig for dirt in Palin's backyard.
Obama must understand that Gov. Palin, with a favorability rating in excess of 80 percent, is unpopular among the old-boy's network she has uprooted, and has easily fended off their attempts to damage her reputation.
Turning to these malcontents for ammunition, when their arsenal of anti-Palin weapons has proved worthless, is a massive waste of effort that is certain to backfire again. They haven't made a dent in her popularity.
Nor will Obama's scandal mongers. Try as they may to make a mountain over the so-called "troopergate" molehill, for example, they will have a hard time explaining why it would be wrong to want to see a four-times married and divorced law enforcement officer kept on the job when he had tasered his 11-year-old stepson, illegally shot a moose, drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion, and told others his father-in-law would "eat a f'ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce.
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