The Palindrome will consume you!

Just...can't...stop...watching....

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The Times today augments what many guessed over the weekend. Palin was never McCain's choice at all; she was a hasty compromise after outraged social conservatives threatened a riot over the possibility of a pro-choice VP. To some, this proves the fundie Christians are still running the GOP, but that's exactly the wrong conclusion. Firstly, she's only being nominated to the largely symbolic post of vice-president. And, even if McCain dodders off and she inherits the presidency, she's so green she'll do whatever the economic feudalism wing of the party demands, just like a certain other dim-witted governor of a vast, oil-rich state. Secondly, Palin has so far proven a colossal embarrassment. If the Big Bidness "Publicans wanted to shame and discredit the Christocrats back into servitude, they could hardly be doing better.

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Palin's pick also reinforces the "Free Republic to New Republic" span of the Overton Window in American politics. Yes, the mainstream press has been rough on Palin, but they've largely focused on her wafer-thin resume and soap-opera family life, not that her fringe social views are an obvious sop to the reactionary Republican base. I trust you can imagine the scenario if Obama had picked someone like Keith Ellison as his running mate. David Broder might need to be hospitalized to have the pearls removed from between his fingers. It would certainly be proof in the pundits' eyes that the Democrats had fallen under the spell of the Angry Left and would shortly be destroying civilized politics as we know it. Anarchist parties in the Capitol building couldn't be far behind.

Not that there was ever any reason to be worried. The Democrats hate their base as much as the Washington press does, and Obama never considered anyone who wasn't reliably center-right.