Soap Opera GOP Convention

I suffered through a part of the GOP Convention coverage last night under my "know your enemy theory" and like many other viewers was struck by the fact that, other than trying to defend the selection of Sarah Plain as the VP candidate, the convention seemed out of touch with reality and seemed plagued by empty seats. Meanwhile, today the Sarah Palin thread is dominating the news and to me demonstrating to me that John McCain "shot from the hip" in selecting her without first doing his homework. The claims of sexism and such are merely a smoke screen to try to distract attention from the fact that McCain acted recklessly in making his selection with the result that he's now doing non-stop damage control.

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Other than statements emanating from the RNC, McCain campaign and Christianist organizations, just about all of the coverage raises questions about Palin and/or her religious extremism (such as her church's belief that gays can be "cured" ). More and more it looks like the Christianists may have forced McCain's hand in making the selection based on the orgasms they are having over her selection. One can only imagine the General Hospital quality of the convention given that young Bristol Palin and her beau, Levi Johnson, will be in attendance. Here are some highlights from Maureen Dowd's take on the Palin selection:

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For many years, reality was out of vogue with Republicans. They ignored the reality of Iraq and Katrina, of Pakistan and Osama bin Laden. . . . Now reality, in all its messy, crazy, funky glory, has flooded the party, in the comely, crackling form of Sarah Palin. Unable to stop the onslaught of wild soap opera storylines erupting from the Palin family and the Alaska wilderness, McCain campaign adviser Steve Schmidt offered caterwauling reporters a new mantra: “Life happens.”

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Indeed, it does. Only four days into her reign as John McCain’s “soul mate,” or “Trophy Vice,” as some bloggers are calling her, on the ticket known as “Maverick Squared,” Palin, the governor of Alaska, has already accrued two gates (Troopergate and Broken-watergate), a lawyer (for Troopergate), a future son-in-law named Levi (a high school ice hockey player, described by New York magazine as “sex on skates”), and a National Enquirer headline about the “Teen Prego Crisis” with 17-year-old daughter Bristol.

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Since John McCain played craps first and sent the vetters to Alaska afterward, Republicans have been defending Governor Palin by saying that, while she has no foreign policy experience — except, as Cindy McCain pointed out, that “Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia” — she has a lot of domestic policy experience as a supercharged P.T.A. and hockey mom.

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When McCain gets in trouble, he pulls out the P.O.W. card. Now Republicans are pulling out the sexist card. Hillary cried sexism to cover up her incompetent management of her campaign, and now Republicans have picked up that trick. But when you use sexism as an across-the-board shield for any legitimate question, you only hurt women. And that’s just another splash of reality.

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As for Palin's desire to censor libraries and the embrace of ex-gay ministries by Palin's church, Time magazine has the following highlight (I recommend reading the whole article since it underscores the recklessness of McCain's selection of Palin:

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[A]s mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

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"We like to call this the Bible Belt of Alaska," says Cheryl Metiva, head of the local chamber of commerce. Churches proliferate in Wasilla today, and among the largest and most influential is the Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship.

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At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day's program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to "respond to misinformation in our culture" and help them "overcome" homosexuality.

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Here's what ex-gay critic, Wayne Besen, has to say about Daddy Dobson's disingenuous Love Won Out program run by ex-gays for pay:

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NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out expressed deep concern today after learning that Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s church appears to support so-called “ex-gay” ministries. These programs that aim to “pray away the gay” are ineffective and have harmed thousands of gay and lesbian people. TWO urged the media to ask Palin if she supports such programs and what her views are on this topic.

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“We are deeply concerned that Sarah Palin may share the extreme and medically unsound view that gay and lesbian people can and should be cured,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We call on Palin to express her views on this issue so we have a clear idea of where she stands. We hope this is an area where she disagrees with her church.”