The Lipstick Smear

As anyone who follows the day-to-day news cycle is no doubt aware, nearly all of the 54th to last day of the 2008 campaign was spent dissecting the sexist intent an aphorism that Obama used in exactly the same manner that McCain did last year. It was clear in, in context, that Obama was referring to either John McCain or John McCain's policies. He was not talking about Gov. Palin at this point in his remarks. In fact, it's several more minutes into the speech before he mentions or even alludes to her.

This did not stop the McCain campaign from putting out another web ad running the video of the comment over a caption that read "Barack Obama On: Sarah Palin." I have neglected to link to this video, not because it is trash, which it is, but because YouTube has pulled it due to complaints from CBS about copyrighted material that is included. It seems they did not give the McCain folks permission to take Katie Couric's on-air editorial about Hillary Clinton and sexism WILDLY out of context. Funny how that riles people up.

There has indeed been some press backlash regarding this wholly created dustup, but even a negative press reaction benefits McCain, in that it's just another day we're not talking about issues and policies. You can be certain that McCain's strategist, Steve Schmidt, has a "message calendar" covering his wall, listing in order no less than thirty ways to create days like today in the next two months. We've got gay marriage and William Ayers, Reverend Wright and Kindergarten sex. Maybe there's even a brain-dead woman in Poughkeepsie that needs the American people to save her.

The motive behind this strategy is clear. In a generic election year, between a generic Republican and a generic Democrat, the Republican always wins. It is, for the time being, the nature of the American electorate. But after eight years of Republican rule, with a collapsing economy, a failing war, and a climate run amok, the odds should be tilted so far toward any Democrat that it's not even a contest.

The only way McCain could win is if he ran in a different year, and that's exactly what Schmidt is trying to do. If he can reignite the culture war, if he can make Americans forget for sixty days, hell, for ONE DAY, what year this is, McCain will be the next president.

What we need is for the news media to refuse to cover these non-stories. We need them to ask why they haven't had the opportunity to elicit from Palin any answers at all, why if she's so prepared to be President tomorrow, she's so unprepared to be a candidate for Vice-President today. They need to ask McCain if he is against teaching children the difference between good touch and bad touch, or if he really believes that Barack Obama is such a sick, perverted man that he relishes the idea of going through the details of coitus with five-year olds.

If the media allows the Republican Party to determine what this election is about, if they play the next seven weeks like they played the last seven days, Obama is going to lose and it's that simple. That is a deeply troubling reality.