La Salle Debain

The McCain campaign made a great tactical move by choosing Sarah Palin. She appeals to all the constituencies where McCain was weak: women, Christians, Libertarians, small state residents, energy policy wonks, corruption fighters, capitalists, gun enthusiasts, and Tina Fey fetishists.

Downsides? She is inexperienced in national affairs but I really don't think the average voter will care. After all many of them were willing to overlook a similar level of inexperience in Obama. And there is one minor possible ethics situation which again will only excite the true believers. When it turns out to be overblown it may actually rebound in Palins favor as an example of MSM manipulation.

She can also take the change meme away from the Democrats though that was already on the rocks what with the FISA vote and the choice of Neil Kinnock as his VP nominee. No, the lacklustre convention in Denver clearly showed that far from being the post-ideological, audaciously hopeful candidate of the future, Barack Obama is merely John Kerry with rhythm.

So what do the Dems have have left? The traditional Democratic themes of "We're not Bush" (that worked sooo well the last two times didn't it?) and "The Earth is about to explode in a fiery cataclysm." As the situation in Iraq improves, the economy climbs upwards from recession and petrol prices continue to come down its going to be harder to sustain the necessary level of gloom and doom.

While Republicans shouldn't exhale just yet (and the title of this post is just a teensy bit hyperbolic,) things are looking pretty good for us at the moment.