Absolutely agree! They need to BACK OFF for a little bit and think up an actual strategy. My first thought is that they should capitalize on her praise of Hillary with a, "she's no Hillary Clinton" line-of-attack. Likewise, they need to get Ferraro out of mothballs and on TV asap to talk about why Palin is bad for women. In a respectful way. Because I think that Palin is GREAT -- I mean really, she seems like she is the best of the GOP. I disagree with her on just about every issue but she seems like the real deal -- not a crony or a hack. So trying to smear her is gonna backfire big time.

Great idea on Ferraro. Too bad the Obama campaign already smeared her as a racist.

What about taking the Republican tack on this. Repeat that she is unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and repeat it over, and over, and over, and ....

Either that, or as they suggest over at Democracy Arsenal, ask her what the difference is between a Suni and a Shi'ite.

Think it's too late on Ferraro. She was all over Fox News this morning aruging that many pro-HRC women are going to be strongly attracted to Palin. And Palin herself shrewdly included shout-outs to both Ferraro and HRC in her announcement speech.

Ed

i underestimated how bright her shining star was with the hardliners in the GOP. this gives me something to think about.

Sudden appearances by Hilliary and Ferraro would appear a defensive move and as Palin is in for the duration, I don't think there's any rush to respond immediately to their pandering for HRC supporters. I find it hard to believe that that will be a major threat of any kind. It can be squelched pretty quickly I suspect. But I do agree there is a need for an offensive strategy because the possibility here is that independent and undecided voters may become sympathetic to Palin's story and confuse the "change" narrative. That is the intention I assume, to confound Obama’s narrative. I agree, this is very touchy.

A lot of people are picking up on this supposed scandal, which is again, a BIG MISTAKE. A guy was abusing her sister and she tried to get him fired. Even if what she did was completely unethical, women everywhere are gonna be on her side. In fact by trying to capitalize on the scandal, you're just going to put the story out there. Not helpful. Democrats need to SLOW DOWN, take a deep breath and THINK about how to respond to Palin. She is a lot more dangerous than she seems at first glance. The conventional wisdom is that she's a lightweight and therefore a joke. But that's what people thought about Bush too. People
are going to LIKE Palin. The GOP is going to LOVE Palin. Hell, I like Palin a lot and I disagree with her on every issue there is. Think about her supposed weakness -- she was the mayor of a town with 5000 people.

That's right -- she was the mayor of a town with 5000 people. Norman Rockwell and Frank Capra are getting gay-married in heaven right now! She is gonna go on interviews, and they are going to ask her about policy arcana, trying to highlight her lack of experience, and every other sentence she says is going to be, in a slightly apologetic tone, "Well I don't know a lot about [issue X -- and neither do average voters] I'm not from inside the beltway. What I do know is that Washington needs change -- just not the kind that Barack Obama wants. Let me tell you a story... [Insert folksey, sweet Alaska story here.]"

She is built for TV. Americans are going to LOVE her. The Christian RIght is going to love her.

And the trick will be to wear away at her over time, slowly and steadily. With a smile and a light touch. At every opportunity every female Democrat need to be out there saying, I like Sarah Palin, I respect Sarah Palin but her ideas are wrong for America. Did you know that she wants the government to force women to carry a pregnancy to term, even in the case of rape and incest?" And so on. And they need to sort of conceed the "folksey, regular guy" battleground to Palin and let Biden be the huge wonk he is. He needs to pepper every conversation, speech, and interview with the names of all the foreign leaders he's met, the presidents he's advised, etc. "Oh, and by the way, I wrote the Violence Against Women Act." No mention of Palin, from him, Ever. Little by little, over time just wear down the sheen of Womaness and let her obvious lack of qualification come to the fore. Tread lightly, Democrats.

p.s. -- this would be a great time to talk about the Supreme Court. I would talk a lot about the Ledbetter v. Goodyear case which allows them to talk about how conservatives treat women's issues without talking about abortion. He wants Justices like Alito and Robert, so let's make Ledbetter a household name between now and November.

@LeoinNYC: "this would be a great time to talk about the Supreme Court. I would talk a lot about the Ledbetter v. Goodyear case which allows them to talk about how conservatives treat women's issues without talking about abortion."

Absolutely. Issues that impact women are about more than reproductive justice; a lot of our issues can be traced back to economic access.

You're also dead on about the appeal of the folk narrative to the public; I'd thought we'd learned our lesson to distrust the 'folksy' but, apparently, we can't get enough of it.

Couldn't agree more that the Obama campaign must not belittle Sarah Palin. The best approach is to take her at face value. Acknowledge her experience and credentials. Treat her and McCain as formidable adversaries (which they are). Gov. Palin has a lot going for her, not the least of which is that she is a likable, telegenic, self-assured, self-made conservative politician -- which is exactly the type of candidate against which Democrats have a terrible track record. Go after her policy positions, yes, but do not in any way belittle her accomplishments. Gov. Palin will either rise to the occasion (in which case the election will be too close for comfort) or she will simply be mediocre (Obama wins easily). It's unlikely she will crash and burn, but if so, it will be by her own hand. Who knows? The pressure of a national campaign may be too much to handle at this stage in her career. I just feel for her family -- let's hope they're all as strong as she appears to be. In any case, it's far too soon and we know too little about Gov. Palin to make any credible predictions about exactly how this will play out. At this point, all we can say is that John McCain likes to take big risks. Whether that goes over well with voters, we'll just have to see. In the meantime, the Obama campaign needs to stick to the issues and keep hammering away at Bush and McCain, and highlight the fact that Gov. Palin is an arch-conservative with no political capital in Washington (i.e., how could she possibly help McCain implement policies at home or abroad?).

Good advice from Ed.
One problem with the suggestion that Geraldine Ferraro be enlisted in this fight. She was on NPR today and when asked who she supported for president, declined to answer. It doesn't look like she is going to help out.

My wife is an extremely moderate progressive schoolteacher who doesn't follow any of the inside baseball of this pick.

But what she did find very negative, and persuasive in a way that attacks Palin directly on her supposed strengths, is that Palin is leaving a four-month-old Down's Syndrome child to be cared for by a nanny to go run for VP.

My wife's opinion is that she and a lot of her otherwise strongly-Edwards-supporting peers were very reluctant to support Edwards even before the revelation of his infidelity (which, of course, has destroyed him with them), because he was similarly leaving his critically ill wife to run for president.

I think that this line of attack might be fruetful. It turns Palin's supposed strongest strength into a liability with exactly the demographic she is most trying to appeal to.

Aargh, sorry, "fruitful."

Another excellent post on this, Ed -- and good comments in general.

joekelley, criticizing Palin for her reproductive and career choices may resonate with some voters, but it's an extremely anti-feminist position and is likely alienate far more people than it attracts.

48 hrs after the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain's VP choice, the verdict appears to be in: Gov. Palin is a hit. The press coverage has been overwhelmingly positive (Maria Bartiromo is practically fan-girl #1, attributing to Palin a level of expertise in energy similar to T. Boone Pickens'). She's been referred to as a "maverick", an "executive," a "reformer," with a "winning personality" and "more experience than Barack Obama." Any potential negatives -- lack of national experience, a potential abuse-of-power scandal, her conservative social positions -- have so far deflected off of her or added to her appeal.

There are two amazingly ironic things about this pick. One is that Gov. Palin will quickly become a "celebrity," first within the Republican Party and then nationally (driven mostly by the mainstream and conservative press). She will get rock star coverage, especially if she uses her "Northern Exposure" charm wisely. It's possible that she could even upstage John McCain, which may turn out to be her biggest liability. The irony lies in the fact that the McCain campaign will encourage this celebrity treatment and then bask in its glow, while at the same time maintaining that Obama is a "bad" celebrity (i.e., a "manufactured" and "self-serving" one; Palin's celebrity will be "totally incidental" and a result of a "genuine outpouring of support for her compelling life story").

The second irony here is gender. I believe that she is getting positive coverage BECAUSE she is a woman. Her story would not be nearly as interesting if she were a man. (By the way, I don't think that's unfair. Women have been getting the short end of the stick for too long.) Because she's attractive (yes, this still matters -- how else do you explain John Edwards?), confidant, appears to be genuine, and doesn't have a controversial political history, she will not have to sell herself to the American people the way Hillary Clinton had to. John McCain looks progressive for choosing a woman, and Palin looks "post-feminist" for being both a mom and a successful politician.

My advice to the Obama campaign: acknowledge that Palin (and the McCain/Palin ticket) is an experienced, strong, and formidable opponent. The best thing to do right now is start the raising the bar, such as:

"We're impressed with John McCain's pick for VP. She brings significant experience in government that we look forward to hearing more about. We trust that she's ready to lead and brings a firm grasp of the pressing issues facing our country: the worsening housing crisis, a fragile economy, a fragmented and volatile world order, and, of course, energy. In particular, we're looking forward to Gov. Palin's ideas, other than off-shore drilling, for creating a new energy policy based on renewable, sustainable and affordable sources. We understand that she wants to open up the Alaska wilderness to offshore drilling, but at best that's a stop-gap measure. We hope that she brings fresh ideas to the table and is willing to work across the aisle to craft a comprehensive new policies."

No mocking. No trying to peg her as "inexperienced." Let Gov. Palin tell her story and then look for any areas where she could be vulnerable. If she's as good as everyone says, there may be few weaknesses to exploit other than the obvious, i.e., foreign policy and the economy. But wherever there is a crack, the Obama campaign must quickly find ways to effectively and credibly communicate it. See if she loses her cool or badly mangles a question. The press will take over from there.