COLUMN: Palin changes the Obama script

There’s a story line to every campaign, as if the candidate were writing his own novel with himself as hero.

Politics isn’t just about policies, it’s also about personalities and the many intangibles we associate with “leaders.”

That has certainly been true with the Obama campaign where the candidate has followed a carefully written script designed to put a certain image before the American public. Whatever one thinks about his politics, Obama has built a solid campaign machine and used his rhetorical skills to frame himself as a Messianic messenger of change.

But Obama’s narrative is now asunder. A new character has entered the story, a character he didn’t script and one outside his control.

When Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin took the stage last week at the GOP Convention, she introduced a powerful new storyline. Her new character has captured the public’s imagination in a way that competes with, even overshadows, Obama.

Until last week, Obama had the better story. He’s a compelling speaker, an intellectual with a unique personal history and a unique impact on American history as the nation’s first serious presidential nominee of color. The Obama Show has played to rave reviews for months.

On the other political channel, the McCain show just hasn’t been as interesting. In spite of McCain’s own storyline as the quintessential American Hero, the stiff gray-haired white guy just wasn’t as compelling as the dynamic and youthful Obama.

But the Obama Show got a big upset when Palin rewrote the McCain script. Suddenly there’s a new, colorful, controversial, interesting character on the stage. Palin is a moose-eating, gun-toting, snowmobile-riding, kick-butt-hockey-mom. To say she is multi-dimensional would be an understatement.

No scriptwriter in Hollywood could create such a character. If this were fiction, it’d be another episode of “Northern Exposure.”
And that’s the point. Palin’s thin national political credentials are secondary to her impact on the Obama script. She’s the new kid on the block, the new political “rock star.” Her policies may be thin, but her personality dominates (all of which should sound familiar with the Obama folks.) Persona overwhelms policy in the minds of many voters.

Interest in Obama peaked long before he stood on the stage in Denver and gave another powerful speech at his convention three weeks ago. He was a known, measured and assimilated candidate. His storyline had become predictable.

Not Palin’s. The American public doesn’t know what to think about this quirky woman from the north. In the few days since her VP announcement, Palin has dominated the news not so much for her politics, but rather from all the speculation being fomented by blogs and network blathering. Palin added to that with her “pitbull” speech in which she verbally gutted Obama as though he was just another Alaskan elk from a big game hunt.

The result has been to throw Obama off his script, to introduce new dialogue, new issues and an interesting new character. Compared to Palin, Obama looks increasingly like a self-aggrandizing narcissist, something his critics have said, but could never portray.

It remains to be seen if the “Palin effect” remains all the way to election day. VP candidates almost never affect the top-of-ticket voting. This may be a first.

Also remaining to see is how the bright lights of international celebrity affect Palin. Her ability to connect with voters and appear “real” could fade as she becomes just another celebrity.

Time will tell. For now, Palin has the spotlight and Obama is, for the first time in the campaign, standing in the shadows. He is no longer the master of his own story.

It’s an unexpected — and fascinating — turn of events.

Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.