Conventions

Other than establishing that MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is so partisan that he makes Faux News look fair and balanced by comparison, I'm not sure if the rest of us learned anything from the conventions.

Basically, we had four days of Democrat propaganda followed by four days of Republican propaganda, with a brief break for Hurricane Gustav. The media's intent to use the Palin VP pick as the means of impugning McCain's judgment backfired after her speech on Wednesday night, because McCain looked brilliant for picking her, and the negative newspaper articles and talking heads had to switch to a different tack.

I've explained on another site the rationale behind the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as Senator John McCain's vice presidential candidate, but I'll do it again here, so that it doesn;t get lost.

McCain faced severe problems with his VP pick. By picking Senator Joe Biden, Senator Barack Obama decided to make an attempt to shore up his foreign policy weakness. McCain's weakness was different. It seemed obvious that he wanted to pick a pro-choice VP candidate such as former Pa. governor Tom Ridge or Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. But, if he did so, he'd lose the support of the far right wing of the Republican Party -- and it was becoming clear that many far-right-wingers were taking the same view of McCain that far-left-wingers had taken of Hubert Humphrey in 1968: sit on their hands and hope he loses.

Yet the main candidates being touted on the right brought their own major weaknesses. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had been pro-choice, pro-gay rights and anti-Reagan-Bush ... until he had an epiphany in 2004 that most voters in Republican primaries held different positions than he did ... at which time he jettisoned everything he had previously stated that he believed. Yeah, imagine claiming to be on the "Straight Talk Express" when your running mate never met a view that he believed in past the next election. A Romney VP slot was the kiss of death for McCain.

Unfotunately, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty wasn't much better of a choice. He didn't bring as much baggage, but he's dull as dishwater as a speaker. And after all of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's near-misses in Louisiana, he needed more than the few months he's spent as governor to change his national image. Meanwhile, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee remained poison to McCain's core supporters, Republican moderates, who weren't going to accept a creationist on the ticket, no way, no how.

Which left Palin. Ideologivally, she is far to the right. But she can so speak well, which is how she beat a sittling governor in the primary and an ex-governor in the genaral election.