Just what is John McCain up to?<\/p>\n
In the movie Jaws<\/a>, when the fictional Captain Quint makes first contact with the great white, and the shark behaves unexpectedly, he tells Police Chief Brody, “I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.”<\/p>\n On McCain unexpectedly picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, Kirsten Powers<\/a> wonders,<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help wondering if this is a trap. The McCain camp watched and learned as Obama supporters offended Hillary supporters by their treatment of her. The McCainiacs had to know that this group is incapable of behaving, that Palin would bring out their worst instincts.<\/p>\n Ed Morrissey<\/a> states,<\/p>\n This trap has two doors, as Powers notes, and the Obama campaign and its supporters fell through both of them. First, it didn\u2019t take long to speak dismissively of Palin as a \u201cbeauty queen\u201d and a \u201csmall-town\u201d hick, even though she governs the state of Alaska and has a favorability rating in the 80s…<\/p>\n The bigger trap, though, was the knee-jerk attack on Palin\u2019s experience. Calling her a \u201csmall-town mayor\u201d only underscored Obama\u2019s own woeful lack of experience…<\/p>\n and then wonders,<\/p>\n Did McCain set Obama up to fall into this trap? If so, then perhaps that more than anything demonstrates how poor a candidate Obama is and how much more masterful McCain can be. Would you rather have the man who set the trap dealing with our enemies abroad, or the man who fell into it?<\/p>\n At the Belmont Club<\/a>, Richard Fernandez states,<\/p>\n …McCain will take risks, but only after figuring the odds.<\/p>\n …<\/p>\n He has the ability to wait patiently until his opponent commits himself to a move then ruthlessly strikes to exploit it. He gives nothing away to clue his opponent on which way he is going to turn. Then suddenly he snaps the stick. A collection of links by Glenn Reynolds reveals a sudden appreciation by McCain\u2019s opponents of his unpredictability. Some are hesitating to criticize Palin\u2019s relative youth and inexperience, lest they fall into the Trap. What trap? A classic AP head says it all: Analysis: Palin\u2019s age, inexperience rival Obama\u2019s<\/em>.<\/p>\n He’s a 72 year-old Maverick who, it would appear, knows his way around.<\/p>\n Also see:<\/p>\n Mark Steyn’s The Hostess with the Moosest<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n