Palin-McCain 2008

In a remarkable piece of truth telling, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin flipped the Republican presidential ticket on its head on Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when she spoke of the "Palin and McCain administration," a mistake compounded on Friday when speaking of McCain as "my running mate" in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Misstatements are bound to occur in any election cycle, though these gaffes come at a poor time for the McCain campaign, with the real candidate trying to escape the large shadow cast by the Alaska governor during the RNC. Truly over the last two weeks this has become the Palin-McCain ticket. This comes as no small delight to religious conservatives who have long been wary of McCain's maverick-pragmatism. James Dobson has already flip-flopped on his refusal to endorse McCain, claiming that he's not been so excited in a candidate since Ronald Reagan--a peculiar thing to say if the "candidate" Dobson is speaking of is McCain. In the eyes of some, it does appear that this is Palin-McCain 2008.

This week McCain has worked to reestablish a shadow of his own. Today, for example, McCain was working hard to defend outsourcing social security in the wake of the recent financial meltdown. While perhaps a reasonable political sell in a time when the fundamentals of the economy are strong (a claim that McCain made in recent weeks), the prospects of such a plan seem bleak in such a time as this.

These are exciting, exciting times.