Thursday, November 26, 2009

Opinion

McCain and Palin Need a Game-Changer Before It's Too Late

October 07, 2008 06:03 PM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print

I've been doing 180s this whole election season, bouncing from poll to contradictory poll and changing my assessment of which candidate was going to win the White House. I've been wrong every time so far. Still, I would like to point out that my blog entry of last week was way ahead of the media crowd about McCain's current meltdown.

At this late date, I cannot see a way out for McCain-Palin.

A "game-changer," as I alluded to last week, would have to be tsunami size to turn around this pair's meltdown in the national polls and Electoral College votes. Tsunamis are possible but rare.

One way not to turn this thing around for her ticket is Gov. Sarah Palin's pit-bull approach to politics. Her attacks on the media, which show biases, to be sure, do not excuse her to rile her supporters to the point where they assault or confront members of the media in racially tinged ways, such as this event described in today's Washington Post:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, Fla., arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Palin loves to compare herself to a pit bull, but methinks she has taken it a bit too far, lipstick or no lipstick. Back off, baby!

Tags: presidential election 2008 | John McCain | Sarah Palin

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About Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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