Déjà vu all over again

Palin's speech last night took me back to the waning days of the Dem Primary, as a (once again) re-invented Hillary wandered from bar to diner to bar and introduced herself as a hard-drinkin' hard-talkin' regular Jane who "got it" unlike them sissified Big City types who didn't understand the real needs and concerns of those "hard workin" (conspicuously WHITE - her words, not mine) male voters.

Adopting this persona, Hillary chewed the Obama campaign up in states that will be critical in the general election...and SOMEone on the GOP side was obviously paying attention because they found the real person that Hillary pretended to be with that particular audience and stood
her up next to McCain. In so doing, they may have altered the dynamics of the race - and possibly the dynamics of "race" for the election.

A lot of voters go on gut instinct rather than specifics of policy or experience. Palin appealed to those gut instincts last night and, for a candidate who is known for his cool, cerebral approach, that could spell trouble. In essence, Palin made the Obama campaign's sense of grandeur seem...a tad silly ("Yeah...what's up with those Greek columns, anyway...?"). Overblown ("I guess change really should be about experience rather than a speech") . Perhaps a bit un-American ("Why CAN'T we be proud of America?").

Hillary laid the groundwork for this Ms. Palin and this speech months ago. Now we will find out if Obama took away the right lessons from his experiences during those closing weeks of the Dem Primary.

Shock Therapy for the GOP?

Will the McCain's selection of Palin shock the Republican Party out of its current funk and toward a better future - regardless of the ticket's ultimate success or failure on election day?

He has forced the Republicans to look into their souls and ask if they are serious about reform, open government, and reduced spending. He will force them to more strongly move behind those positions as they angle to support his campaign over the next few months. I get the feeling that McCain may have gone some way toward wresting the mantle of the Republican party away from its Old Guard. If that proves to be the case, then McCain has helped the GOP regardless of whether or not he wins the election.

Update:

James Poulos' article in the Guardian neatly summarizes the strength of Palin in rejuvenating a badly damaged Republican Party. The key point to remember: Palin is NOT there as simply a cynical ploy to pull disaffected Hillary voters away from Obama. If anything, it is a more skilled maneuver to wrest the mantle of change from Obama:

Palin has the opportunity to recast the 2008 election entirely — by proving that freshness and unpreparedness for office are not synonyms, and that Democrats do not have the corner on our broad, deep hopes for political revitalisation. Just as Obama brilliantly selected Biden to connect the ticket to the Democratic party of the pre- and post-Clinton years, McCain made the savvy and humane decision to connect his ticket to the years that bracket the Republicans' sorry Bush/DeLay era.

As such, Palin, like Biden, is a victory for all America, and the beginnings of a promise that — young or old, Republican or Democrat — American leaders have the capacity to renovate their country's dysfunctional politics without waging a scorched-earth culture war.

Personally, I'm enjoying watching McCain jam his thumb in the eye of the GOP's DC Establishment...and forcing them to applaud him for it as they head into the RNC.