GOP enthusiasm and Democratic tiptoeing

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.

Politics, for the most part, is the art of illusion. And nowhere is that talent for prestidigitation so valued as during a presidential race, where a state senator four years removed is seen as not just presidential timber but almost godlike by his acolytes, and where an unknown governor of a far-removed state who has barely interacted with the standard-bearer is considered fit to be the proverbial heartbeat away.

Watching the Republicans in St. Paul engage in marvelous and hypocritical contortions about their anointed messiah — Sarah Palin will save us! — is almost as comically painful as observing the Democrats laboring to be sensitive about the Alaska governor and her teenage daughter’s being in a family way — shh, let’s not offend any women or make too many people think about that pesky experience issue.

Watching this surreal scenario unfold, it is almost as if Gustav had whirled as far north as Minnesota and threw both partisan houses into the Land of Oz. L. Frank Baum couldn’t have imagined how many scarecrows, tin men and cowardly lions would be flapping their lips on Sarah Palin, with the Democrats too scared to tell the truth and Republicans taking advantage to create a virtual reality before anyone notices.

The truth is quite simple: No matter how many Republicans you hear talking about how excited they are about Palin, this is like the man who goes on a blind date, meets the woman, can’t figure out why he was matched with her and then, like a gentleman, feigns interest, even enthusiasm, until the date is over.

In this case, that date is Nov. 4, and for only a couple of months, political folks can fake anything. They know as little about Palin — beyond the contours of her resume — as did John McCain when he plucked her from obscurity after only one meeting and now is doing ex post facto vetting as details of her public and private lives trickle in.

You simply cannot vet a small-town mayor and small-state governor in the amount of time McCain took to choose Palin — that is, a day or so. So now the Republicans are painting their smiles on their faces and reacting defiantly if anyone dares question the governor’s lack of experience or the embarrassing juxtaposition of her daughter’s engaging in premarital sex while her mom has long advocated that abstinence-only education is the best deterrent to such behavior.

Anyone with a teenage daughter — and many without — understands this is a difficult and ordinarily very private matter. But for the party of family values and government regulation of female bodies to suddenly clamber onto a high horse about privacy is a little too much to bear.

Does anyone believe that this crew, if Barack Obama had a pregnant teenage daughter, would react with such forbearance? To watch the virtuous gambling man, Bill Bennett, sanctimoniously chiding Wolf Blitzer on CNN for daring to even raise the subject was indescribable.

But the “best defense is a good offense” tack just might work. It was the same approach taken by Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden when I asked her about it via satellite on “Face to Face.” Lowden told me she was surprised that I would have even asked about the subject and chided me that I was alone in the Nevada press corps to even broach the subject with her.

So there. Properly chastened, I am.

But not nearly so much as the Democrats who generally have tiptoed around any issue with Palin for fear of being called sexist or of seeing Obama’s thin experience, also a perfectly legitimate issue for discussion, contrasted with the Alaska governor’s.

The manifest truth is that if Joe Lieberman wouldn’t have caused an internecine, made-for-TV conflagration in St. Paul, or Tim Pawlenty weren’t so boring, either one might have been picked. But McCain knew he needed a sexy choice — oh no, is that sexist? — so he tried to energize the base and win over some women, both of which may prove successful.

Which raises another question: Why is it that women and their supporters in politics want them to be treated just like men when they are running for office, but when they are accorded the same tough questioning or scrutiny as male politicians, they too often cry sexism?

Palin will introduce herself to millions of Americans tonight at the national convention.

The Republicans will be as ecstatic as they can be when the cameras are rolling, and the Democrats will be as careful as they can be when asked for reaction.

Excited Republicans and circumspect Democrats. Those illusions, like most in politics, won’t last long.

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program “Face to Face With Jon Ralston” on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the daily e-mail newsletter “RalstonFlash.com.” His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or at [email protected].