A stroke of genius perhaps?
When the McCain campaign announced that Bristol Palin was pregnant, the media began a two-day stampede investigating the suggested hypocrisy of Palin's stance on pre-marital s*x, followed by commentary on her lack of control of too many kids reflecting her ymanaging skills and a flaw in the "power-frau" image she projects.
No one seemed to ask why the campaign released the non-story of a teen pregnancy in the first place? Cuz they were reading the media like a book, perhaps?
Supposedly it was to quiet the rumors that Trig wasn't her baby.
Yeah, right, sure it was...
Well, there were several rumors and stories about Sarah Palin as folks tried to flesh out this unknown candidate for world leader. What choice did we have? McCain dropped her on us out of the "Last Frontier"! We were all his patsy and this maestro was playing us like a fiddle. Rather than ask the right questions, we played along.
Then quicker than a McCain VP decision... one non-story... indirectly about Sarah Palin ruled them all- the valid and the not. It roared louder than Hurricane Gustav (I know, I know) and quieted any other discussion of Palin for two days.
The stories building up since Friday's announcement ranged from very political to very personal.
1) There was Troopergate--the Alaskan Legislature investigation of Palin's possibly improper dismissal of the Public Safety Commissioner
[very political]
2) There was Trig(ger)gate--That baby Trig might be teenie Bristol's uh, like, who cares?
[very personal]
3) There was BabyWatergate--That Palin flew to Texas in her 8th month of an already diagnosed high-risk pregnancy to speak at a high-profile Republican conference. Hours before her speech, her water broke! What did Mrs. Right-to-life do? She waited around and delivered her speech as planned. She chose not to get examined by any of the top-ranked neo-natal specialists in the Dallas area but instead called her personal physician who okayed her travel by phone. Palin then, while in inactive labor flew to Anchorage and drove 50 miles to her "personal" physician who delivered baby Trig.
The discussion of pro-life Sarah Palin risking her unborn baby and the impact of her strenous 9k round trip travel likely causing Trig's premature birth was getting started by Sunday.
[very queasy]
But just as the "woman's right to lose" for her career discussion was taking off, Monday's announcement came Campaign provided Juneaugate.
The misdirection also kept the next step in the getting to know you phase from getting heard altogether. That was the fact that Sarah Palin called for the troops to be pulled out of Iraq months ago. [very on point]
Some ticket.
Just imagine, if the media hadn't taken the bait, they could be well on their way to credibly discussing the dissonance on the ticket.
Am I giving the McCain campaign too much credit?
We've learned from the Bush Presidency that there is perhaps more at play than coincidence here (like the recent drop in gas prices displaying our "healthy" economy)--an invisible hand pulling the strings that we the public never see until the truth gets aired years afterwards. If the announcement was strategic, it was absolutely Rove-ian and I mean it with the highest of praise. Who best knows the media than that puppetmaster?
In hindsight it seems too obvious a step, after all the overcoverage of Britney, Lindsey, Miley, Jamie...all one needs to do to stop all serious scrutiny is throw some raw meat [as in a juicy teen story] to the press and watch them devour it like a pack of ...uh journalists. Too easy.
Desirable outcome--- Palin looks unfairly attacked and the media loses all credibility. Bristol's pregnancy was never a story and the campaign had no real reason to release it.
Well...
Here we go again...and,
Haven't we learned anything?
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