Monday, September 22, 2008

The Rocky Republican Horror Show

The McCain campaign is unveiling Sarah Palin in a way that brings back the creepy fear I felt as a nine-year-old watching a scene in "The Invisible Man," when the mad scientist slowly unwound the bandages from his face to reveal...nothing.

Much more than the frightening figures of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, that absence chilled the imagination as does the current blankness where the face of someone a heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world should be.

Now, almost a month after McCain chose her and six weeks before voters have to decide, Sarah Palin has yet to show her face at a press conference where reporters can question her.

This week will feature a photo-op shaking hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the UN, followed by a controlled end-of-the-week two days with Katie Couric that will be doled out by CBS next week. Other than that, there will be Palin's robotic stump speech to cheering crowds with hand-written signs provided by the McCain campaign.

What we know about Palin continues to dribble out second- and third-hand, to be decried by her surrogates as smears, such as the news today that the woman who is courting ardent feminists was the only mayor in Alaska whose town made victims of assault pay for rape kits.

There may be a plausible explanation for that, but we won't get to hear it until reporters are allowed to question the candidate, a possibility that keeps receding toward Election Day.

Movie buffs will recall that the hubris of "The Invisible Man" led to an unhappy ending but, in today's political and media climate, who can say?

1 comment:

Mike said...

Umm, I'm pretty sure there's no good explanation for charging rape victims for their own rape kits.
The Palin family justification would, of course, be that if their precious daughter were raped they could afford the thousand bucks. It's all about self-interest for these people.