McCain pales in the shadow of newly appointed vice

It’s the new show everybody’s talking about. And this week a new character has really turned up the heat, turning ratings on their head.

No it’s not Gossip Girl, nor is it the revamped Beverly Hills 90210.

It’s the Republican race for the White House… and this week a new star was born.

Sarah Palin has captivated audiences and critics alike; who would have thought a pro-life, gun-toting former beauty queen would be the one to steal Barack Obama’s thunder?

The Republican vice-presidency posed a make or break situation for Senator John McCain; many commentators were sure he’d make an easy decision and pick an old faithful like Mitt Romney. But McCain obviously thought it was finally time for ‘change’.

And change it’s definitely brought, with Obama on the defence for first real time in this Presidential campaign. With the Democrats scrambling into damage control ahead the November 4 election, political commentators are admitting it’s no wonder Obama got caught on the back foot.

In true soapie-style, Palin emerged as vice president nominee among a swarm of rumours that she faked her own 5th pregnancy. Liberal rumourmongers clogged the blogosphere with conspiracy theories Palin’s youngest son Trig was actually her grandson, the whole story concocted to cover her own daughter’s teenager pregnancy.

Yet in a twist of fate, Palin dispersed these rumours with a hard truth – her own 17 year old daughter was pregnant, out of wedlock and was keeping the baby. (Note: Palin is staunchly pro-life, not even supporting abortion in cases where the mother has been raped.)

Obama spoke out in Michigan that “people’s families are off-limits”, but for the Democrats the damage had already been done. Although Obama commented that Bristol Palin’s pregnancy “has no relevance” to the vice president nominee’s performance, in reality it was the ultimate commitment to the Republicans campaign.

While Palin’s teenage daughter has undoubtedly been dragged into a political sphere she should never have entered, in essence the family drama became the ultimate playing chip in the Republican campaign’s comeback.

No-one made the point better than Dr James Dobson, founder and chairmen of Focus on the Family, a US Christian evangelical organisation. “They (the Palins) should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances”

First come the evangelical conservatives, and then the voters (wait, is there difference?)…

In fact the latest ABC Washington Post poll shows a 20 per cent swing in white women’s votes for McCain since he chose Palin as his VP, fortunate given the number of political editors predicting that despite the demise of Hillary, the next Presidential term could include a woman after all.

As Phillip Adams quipped in the Australian this Tuesday, quoting a TV comic, “Palin is pro-life while McCain’s fighting for life.”

And as the Washington Post reported this week, “The fact is that Ms Palin has an astonishingly thin resume – mayor of a small town, governor of a sparsely populated state for less than two years – for someone hoping to ascend to national leadership.”

Nevertheless, with the attitude of Palin emerging such as it is, McCain would do well to remember what John Howard’s constant denial of Peter Costello’s bid for leadership did to the Coalition in the latest Australian election…

Because something tells me Palin will stick to her guns.