Palin Protesters! And a note on Personality

Sarah Palin's return to Alaska was welcomed with open arms--by thousands (I repeat, THOUSANDS) of protesters, all angrily holding signs in opposition to the psychopath's hard-right platform.

Here's the video of the Anchorage pit-stop. Anchors away!

And, as promised, a note on the alarming role personality is playing in the presidential election.

The strategy of the McCain campaign is simple: above all else, keep conversation away from the issues. Campaign chair Rick Davis put it best in a recent Washington Post interview when he said, "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Admittedly, McCain's campaign has done a remarkable job avoiding the issues and focusing on personality. Consider the VP choice of Sarah Palin.

When the pick was announced, I saw through McCain's initial justification for the selection, how he has chosen Palin for her record as a "reformer." It was a blatant and shameful play for PUMA voters (Party Unity My Ass voters, who supported Clinton and are refusing to support Obama) and the supposed "Reagan Democrats," democrats who are too stupid to vote in their own self-interest. And, Palin represented the kind of scientifically ignorant, cronyism infested charlatan that the GOP adores.

What I did not count on, though, was how distracting Palin would be. In that respect, I'll give McCain some credit. He chose a VP who was so ridiculous, so overwhelmingly dishonest, that the media and mainstream voters alike would be mesmerized by her presence, putting an absolute stand-still on the long-awaited scrutiny of McCain's platform.

The distraction has worked in spades, however. Currently, McCain LEADS Obama in national poll averages (which may be bullshit, as they neglect younger voters), and the once comfortable lead Obama enjoyed in the election market polls (think Vegas-style politics) is all but disintegrated.

This may be a mirage. The media may finally wake-up to Palin's lies and voters may FINALLY discover that McCain is George W. Bush with a turkey girdle.

Realistically, we'll have to wait until the debates, as that will present a venue where McCain will be forced to answer for his dreadful record on economics, foreign policy, energy, healthcare, and lobbyists.

But, even with debates, this epiphany did not happen in 2000; and it did not happen in 2004, either, so I approach these coming weeks with a skeptic's eye and a cynic's worldview.