The headline asks, "Could Palin Factor Save McCain?" and their story brings back memories of another Cinderella tale--how Grace Kelly came to rescue Prince Rainier of Monaco half a century ago.
In the New Yorker, Jane Mayer says of McCain and Palin: "By the time he announced her as his choice, the next day, he had spent less than three hours in her company."
Their whirlwind courtship duplicates how the movie star and the Prince got together over half a century ago and for some of the same reasons.
Monaco, a tiny country surrounding a casino in Monte Carlo, was in as much trouble then as the McCain campaign this summer, until Grace Kelly was briefly introduced to Rainier while shooting "To Catch a Thief" there.
Soon afterward, the Prince visited the Kelly family in Philadelphia and, after being alone with her for only a few hours, asked the movie star to marry him and she accepted.
Rainier's advisor was a priest named Father Tucker, and it turns out that the McCain-Palin union was brokered by a less spiritual team led by William Kristol and Dick Morris. The 21st century counterpart of the movie shoot was a fund-raising cruise of the Weekly Standard to Alaska last summer.
At a lunch in the governor's mansion, Kristol and other Neo-Cons were smitten. A few weeks later, a boatload from the National Review came to call and, after sharing salmon with Palin, had a similar reaction.
Morris, a Clinton confidante who fell out of favor after having a prostitute listen in on his phone calls to the president, wrote in the Washington Post, “I will always remember taking her aside and telling her that she might one day be tapped to be Vice-President, given her record and the shortage of female political talent in the Republican Party."
The rest is history, but Palin's story may turn out to be Princess Grace in reverse. The movie star gave up show business for high office but, after her SNL stint, Palin is being touted for a new career as an entertainer. The voters will help her decide next month.
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3 comments:
"given . . . the shortage of female political talent in the Republican Party"
Ouch. that's gotta hurt Olympia Snowe, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Susan Collins, Marilyn Musgrave, Jean Schmidt, Condoleezza Rice, . . .
Anon,
No kidding. I guess what he really meant was that there was a shortage of female political talent that the Religious Right would find acceptable. (Although I can't believe that to be true either)
I still have a hard time understanding why it was Palin. There are many other well-qualified women in the Republican party. Any one of them could have proven to be a more appealing vice-presidential pick (both on issues and experience), and McCain might not be in the position he has found himself.
Hmmm... a career as an entertainer??? I doubt it, but maybe she will have a chair right beside Whoopie in the The View. Elisabeth would be so proud....
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