We all know that Sarah Palin talks about how she is a hockey mom and how tough she is. But there is a lot of discussion about how we should just ignore her and focus on McCain. I agree that she is a distraction, but Sean Quinn over at fivethirtyeight.com got me thinking in his piece comparing her to a "4th String Agitator" While I agree with his premise, I disagree with his conclusion.
In hockey, you only send out your agitators when your team is down. In some teams they only have one goal, and that is to disrupt the other teams game. Get them thinking about the agitator and not about the net. In those cases you ignore the agitator and focus on their star scorer. However, other teams, like the Colorado Avalanche or the New Jersey Devils have a secondary goal for their agitators, and that is to actually take out your star scorer. It will never be an ice skate to the neck where the act is so violent that the public (and the refs) turn on you. It is always the hooks and cross-checks in the hopes to twist their ankle or put them on the bench for a little while. With these teams you have to pay attention to the agitators.
It isn't enough to simply respond to an agitator. Sean Quinn addressed that quite nicely when he said that the player that punches second ends up in the box. That is true. What you have to do is send out your own agitator to send the other teams to the box. Cross-check to the lower back, put him on the ice. Granted, you will get a two minute penalty, but you can go back to focusing on scoring. You have to hit them hard.
Thank God for Joe Biden. If ever there was an attack dog VP Biden is the one. They need to let him off the leash. Point out her abuse of power scandals. And I don't mean just in front of the left-wing bloggers. Let the world know. Same thing on calling out her lies (Bridge to Nowhere, etc...). Everyone here knows, but the public at large does not. Obama can't do this because we do not want him in the penalty box. But imagine, if at the debate, Biden asks her "Forgive me, madam Governor, but I can't wait. Can you tell me what the results of the investigation against you by both your state's attorney general and the house of representatives is going to turn up?" People will say he beat up on the girl, but it will then be out there, she is being investigated for abuse of power. If he can make that stick, point out her corruption, then she will be side-lined for the remainder of the game.
I want to point out the consequences of not taking her down. It is true, people vote for the top of the ticket, but in this case, the top of the ticket is very old. A lot of people who are underwhelmed with McCain may say to themselves, "You know, he is very old and he may just serve one term. Then Palin will run and we can have her." In addition, she is a true right-wing nutjob conservative, something they aren't sure John McCain is. The right will eat that up and be newly energized, not for him, but for her. And don't forget that if she continues to lie about Obama's record ("He has written two memoirs but not a single piece of major legislation") and we don't respond, people may think that is true. Add the fact that the media loves her and we could have a very big problem on our hands.