Jon Chait has a characteristically sharp (in more ways than one) piece equating Dan Quayle with Sarah Palin. It's really good. It's funny--she's actually becoming a drag on the ticket. I didn't think that would happen.
I have to say that this election cycle has given me hope in America. It really has. The McCain campaign has, for some time now, traded on the notion that Americans are too stupid to get what's going on. Keep repeating lies after they've been debunked--the people won't know. Sarah Palin will distract from McCain's lack of charisma and failed policies--she'll be a big shiny object that will distract everyone from the deficiencies of the ticket. Oh wait, we meant that she'll shake things up. And, while we're at it, let's change our messaging every day to what's popular at the moment, hoping that Americans have an attention span like a 5 year old ADD kid on meth. And it ain't working. But he's putting his country first, right?
After McCain's speech, which marked something of a departure from his usual rhetoric, I was worried that the public was going to buy it. But they haven't, and as soon as McCain started reverting to his (new) old ways, the public figured he was full of shit. I'll say this about Americans--whether in the case of Sarah Palin or John McCain's lies and, for lack of a better term, policies--we know when we're being sold a lemon.
