Focusing on Palin: Five questions, two perspectives

Should Obama engage Palin? No. It makes him look smaller than McCain. Part of the reason Palin was picked is that the Republicans WANT a national debate on experience and qualifications. Any day the topic is experience, Iraq or race it's not a good day for Obama. Any day the topic is the economy or the Bush record is a good day for Obama.

Should Biden engage Palin? No, for reasons given above.

Should Hillary engage Palin? Hell no! That would be the biggest media circus since the OJ trial and would diminish the stature of Obama and Biden relative to Palin and relative to Hillary.

Should lower profile surrogates engage Palin? Yes, but politely and mostly on the issues. (I like Barbara Boxer getting the word "extremist" out there.)

Should people on the internet engage Palin? Here's the tricky question. Many say "we" need to keep "our" focus on Palin. I honestly don't see that what people post on DU has much to do with setting the national political agenda. People will talk about Palin in the real world no matter what happens on DU because she's a fresh freak-show and both McCain and Obama are comparatively boring. But even assuming that people should pretend we set the national agenda, here's a question:

If Palin goes down in flames can McCain be elected?

Palin isn't just a distraction. She's McCain's entire margin. Before Palin McCain never led in polls. After Palin he leads narrowly. If Palin becomes a national laughingstock how can McCain win? VPs don't usually make a difference, but Palin is an exception. She's the center of McCain's fall strategy. She's also a weak link... not just vulnerable because she's a clown, but also because she is an unknown out there to be defined.

And here's the value of the internet... lower level trouble makers on the internet do not set the national political agenda but have a big say in setting the celebrity gossip agenda. Pantyless Britany... Jennifer Love Hewitt's cellulite... 'leave Britany alone'... viral videos, humorous emails, nasty satire. That's the internet's niche in our mass culture. And Palin is a celebrity gossip story, not a legitimate political story.

Obama cannot engage Palin because he's Barack Obama. But internet gadflies can, will and should. Wonkette, to cite a for instance, helps more than hurts. You Tube helps more than hurts. The internet is the vox populi and excels at jeering.

And the Karl Rove brush-back pitch of trying to tie the coarsest internet jibes to the Obama campaign is a premeditated strategy. If real outrages do not arise naturally the RW will be happy to create them. Since we will be blamed either way we might as well get some shots in.

...if not for what's happening on the Internets.

need to keep at Palin to show how unqualified (and quite silly) she is. I just can't imagine how Biden can debate her though. Her stupidity makes her such a ripe sympathy vote it's scary.