There’s been some talk in recent weeks about the website http://www.mccainpalin.com/, especially among those of us booming Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. Today, it has in succession redirected to websites purporting to announce a McCain/Pawlenty ticket, a McCain/Hutchison ticket, and now a McCain/Romney ticket. Where it will go by the time you click on the link, I have no idea. Plus, there are other indications and rumors flying—Tim Pawlenty has canceled appearances, the Secret Service is at Mitt Romney’s sister’s house, and so on—all pointing different directions.I can only come to one conclusion: the McCain campaign is playing with our minds. Having watched Sen. Obama’s pick leak despite efforts to keep everything hush-hush, they’ve decided to go the other way and flood the arena with disinformation. There are so many red herrings flopping around out there right now, the only thing you’re going to accomplish if you dive in is to come up smelling fishy.I have no idea who Sen. McCain’s pick will be; I think the complete absence of any pointers aiming at my favorite governor might be telling, but I’m by no means sure enough of that to say. I am sure of this, though: Sen. McCain said his pick is going to be a surprise, and by cracky, he wants to keep it that way!
The more I have watched things unfold today, the more I find myself agreeing with you about this! They are having fun with this, and really, it’s a masterful performance: They are playing the media, and I love it.
They have a guy on Townhall.com floating Rick Santorum for Pete’s sake. I think this bodes well for a dark horse; not necessarily Palin, but definitely not one of the main candidates.
It is truly telling here is the conservatives oohing, and awing at the skill of their party to deceive, misinform, and misdirect people. They seemed stunned at the incredible mastery that is on such full display before them. Of course, token liberals pundits like myself, are quick to remind them it take years of training, hard work, and practice to take the gold.
Its okay, you can grimace then laugh. I won’t tell anyone, promise.
As I said, there’s clearly an expert at work here somewhere . . . I didn’t say I approve, merely that whether I do or not, I have to admire it.
Being able to effectively keep a secret and masterfully handling complex logistics so you can do what you said you would do is a bad thing? Not to mention, the two goals accomplished by all this: Getting people excited for the choice while simultaneously coming off as classy by not allowing a leak that would detract from your opponent’s big historic night and chance to make his case to the American people. It is already better than a bungled 3 AM text message that got leaked; it also will make it harder for the Dems to attack during the convention; they are constrained to rise to Mac’s level of class displayed last night or pay the price. Ultimately, this is a matter of competence: Which group of people do you want in charge of the military, the CIA, the FBI, and other agencies where controlling leaks, keeping secrets, and having logistics locked down are of the utmost importance?
It’s looking good for our favorite gov…
The competence is impressive. I’m ambivalent about some of the means; but anything done this well and with this much zest, I just have to sit back and laugh.
I just read (on another blog) that McCain picked Palin. I just might have to consider voting for him now (instead of a 3rd party candidate).
CNN is reporting that Palin’s the pick; I’m waiting to post until the candidate confirms it.