McCAIN'S SARAH PALIN PASS

McCain's campaign committee has announced that in the next week or so, McCain will be joining up with running mate Sarah Palin to campaign with her for part of the final days of the presidential race leading up to election day. While McCain is closing the gap between him and Obama, he knows that being widely outspent by Obama, having little new to offer, memories of his crackpot show of "suspending" his campaign to go to Washington to help resolve the financial crisis still strong, and lately questions about his health coming up, he nonetheless still needs to end up on an especially strong note to carry over the finish line as the winner. Sarah Palin, and only Sarah Palin, has proven to add enthusiasm to the McCain campaign and provide media interest beyond the perfunctory. For the McCain campaign, this enthusiasm and interest stands in for a focus and forward look. If things go as the McCain campaign is hoping, this enthusiasm and interest may even obscure the fact that there is no focus or forward look.

As Palin's recent appearance on Saturday Night Live shows, she can be counted on to draw a crowd looking for the arousal and distraction of entertainment. With Palin, SNL drew its largest audience ever. In her short skit, everyone seemed to be having a good time--everyone except Palin. I thought I saw two or three times during the skit behind her designer glasses a flickering moment when she looked away. She looked off the stage to her left, as if into any empty area outside the silly frivolity of the skit (which in fact wasn't very good or original). It looked as if she was seeking a reassuring responsive look or nod that what was going on wasn't really happening, that it would be over soon. I was reminded of the moment when the figure-skating star Nancy Kerrigan was in a parade at Disneyland in honor of her win in a recent competition. Dwarfs dancing around her slowly moving float, Mickey Mouse standing beside her waving, a large excited crowd of all ages lining the street waving to Kerrigan and cheering her, over an open microphone on the float, Kerrigan was heard to say  "This is dumb" as she waved and smiled. By the time near the end of the short skit the moose looking a little like Bullwinkle sallied onto the stage to do its silly bit, Palin was probably wishing that the producers had given her a gun as a prop. There was one moose she'd like to shoot.

A while back, McCain tried to make some ground against Obama by portraying him as a celebrity candidate similar to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. All attractiveness and oddity, nothing more. It didn't work. So McCain resorted to the next best thing--turning the running mate into a celebrity similar to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The McCain campaign has given up on coaching her on policy, preparing her for probing media appearances, and generating an image of her as a politician with gravity and authority. Time is short. The clocking is running out. Get her on stage! We may win this one yet, the McCain campaign is thinking, hoping.

And so, the McCain campaign is getting Palin out in circumstances little different from the Saturday Night Live skit and for effects little different from it. Put Sarah in play, is the play McCain and his managers have called for the final play. Palin is being winged down field into the end zone with the hope that this last play will succeed in giving the team the few more points it needs to win.