… well, not really a change, I guess.
Is the Sarah Palin story fading a bit? Is the media getting tired of following up on reports about her feud with a liberal preacher, her ties to a Kenyan witch-hunter, or her very odd choice of people (Westbrook Pegler) to quote?
On the last note, being a guy who collects quotations, sometimes it’s very easy to find something you like without knowing much about who said it. Or, even if you do, realizing that the quotation itself fits just what you want to say, even if the person is not someone you agree with on other items. And, of course, chances are that it was a speech writer, not Palin herself, who chose the words.
That said — everything a candidate does and says is under intense scrutiny — and will be when they are running the country and conducting international affairs, too. And, beyond that, it’s one thing for a candidate to quote from Teddy Roosevelt (who, aside from his greatness as a president, had a decidedly mixed record, from the modern perspective, on race relations), and quite another to quote from someone who wished that FDR had been assassinated and hoped that RFK would be.
No, Palin’s gaffes seem to be fading into the background — as another woman’s gaffes pop up this news cycle. Carly Fiorina, former HP-Compaq exec (before she was booted), has been one of McCain’s top economic advisor and an A-List media contact. But after she noted that Palin wasn’t qualified to run a big corporation, then added, in her defense, that McCain wasn’t either, nor were Obama and Biden, the campaign is reputed to be banishing her to Coventry — though she’ll still be active behind the scenes. Perhaps with her media calendar cleared up, she can commiserate with another McCain supporter who ran into some self-inflicted trouble.
Meanwhile, on the main stage, I’m seeing more folks turning from reacting to what’s going on with McCain and his strange bed-fellows, and instead starting to talk positively about what Obama has to offer: more leadership on the economy, support from economists, a better tax strategy, more support for small farmers, a better plan for health care — a whole laundry list of reasons to vote for him (though these comparative talking points on science from both campaigns seem longer on rhetoric than substance). He’s doing some serious talking, even in glittering fund-raising venues. Joe Biden is beginning to get more coverage, too, which is good.
And after the frantic worries of defeat post-RNC polling bump, people are beginning to let the Obama campaign run itself rather than second-guess its strategy, even as it starts fighting back proactively against potential election day dirty tricks.
I’ve been doing a bit more work on these election posts, trying to actually weave a narrative rather than just posting a bunch of annotated links like my regular “potpourri” posts. Any feedback is appreciated.