Off Balance

“Surprise pregnancy has
Republicans off balance”

That Chicago Tribune headline is one of the more misleading I have ever read.

There is a party that is “off balance.”

It is the Democratic Party.

First John McCain steals the Labor Day weekend media coverage by announcing his vice presidential candidate right after Barack Obama makes his acceptance speech.

A woman no less.

The Lefties are so upset they float the rumor that Sarah Pahlin’s Down Syndrome baby son is really her 17-year old daughter’s.

Stop me if you think I am ascribing too much advance planning to the McCain campaign.

Next it is announced that Palin’s daughter is pregnant.

McCain’s campaign captures another news cycle.

Before you jump all over me, remember that McCain knew about the teenager’s pregnancy before he selected her mother as his vice presidential candidate.

Consider some constituencies Sarah Palin appeals to.

  • Of course, conservative women, but not necessarily the older ones who stayed home to raise their kids,
  • Mothers who work outside the home–those who worked and are working while raising children,
  • Then, those who have discovered they were carrying a Down Syndrome baby. Some aborted them and others delivered them,
  • And, now, the mothers who have discovered that their daughters disappointed them by becoming pregnant at too young an age.

Here is a woman all can relate to.

Was the revelation of the 17-year olds pregnancy a planned part of the McCain campaign?

The American Specator’s J.R. Dunn wrote on Labor Day

“Look at this (not the pregnancy announcement, but the day after Obama’s speech announcement of Palin as V.P, choice) from a strategic perspective. There is no huge convention bounce for Obama; the Rasmussen tracking poll has Obama but three points ahead of McCain.

“That smashing sound you heard was Obama’s bounce being run over by a truck. McCain shoved it into the street, first by offering his ‘congratulations’ in the middle of Obama’s speech on Thursday night, then by dropping Palin on the Dems less than twelve hours later.

“Every last campaign attempts to rain on the opposition’s convention, but never in my experience has it been carried off as slickly and completely as this. Although the left and its press allies pretend Palin is a disaster for the GOP, the precise opposite is the case.”

Dunn points out that McCain’s 2008 campaign is not like his seat-of-the-pants 2002 effort.

“This time, he’s working out this campaign move by move, thinking five or more moves ahead…He’s knows exactly how he’s going to use Palin.”

Of course, there is the Hillary play.

In addition, Dunn talks about using her in the energy part of the campaign. I have suggested her corruption fighting credentials will be used to emphasize that Obama has none.

Read Dunn’s splendid conclusion:

“I think McCain is sitting across the board and looking at Obama and thinking, ‘Your move, ace.’

“McCain has moved out his queen, and she, as queens will do, is dominating the board. Let’s see how the Dems deal with that.”

And Dunn didn’t even know about what very well could be a calculated move on McCain’s part to reveal Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy.

Not only in the Democratic Party off balance, but, obviously so is the Left Stream media.

How else to explain the Tribune headline and what I found on Channel Two’s web page last night?

The word “scandal” is no where in Mike Flannery’s story.

The veteran political reporter uses the phrase “startling revelations.”

I emailed him a complaint suggesting perhaps the CBS folks who wrote the headline wanted to bring back the Scarlet Letter.

From his Blackberry on the convention floor, I received the following answer:

“Did not know that. I will request a new headline.”

Here is the new headline:

“Ill. Republicans Stand Behind Beleaguered Palin”

Fair enough.


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