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This election has reminded of a little toy my sister once had growing up. It was called a Tamagotchi. Essentially, it was nothing more than a key ring with a cheap LCD screen, where players could watch and interact with a tiny pixelated “pet.” There were other versions that could do more, such as the Giga Pet, but BabySis™ didn’t want anything to do with those because the Tamagotchi was the “cool” toy of the moment. Finally she got her very own Tamagotchi. I don’t think it kept her attention for more than maybe a week. Why? Because for all the hype and the celebrity status the toy had gathered, using three buttons to constantly feed and clean up after a little digital monster just isn’t that fun. There was just no “there” there, if you know what I mean. Every day now I’m getting an increasing number of hits from people searching the term “tired of Palin.” That ought to be a red flag to the McCain campaign if it doesn’t want it’s VP pick to go the way of the Tamagotchi.
I’m first to admit that I underestimated the ability of the McCain campaign to put together a strategy for most effectively using Sarah Palin. Palin single-handedly (well, actually it was thanks to genius work by her handlers) tied the race. How? They’ve played up her celebrity status (hey, didn’t they attack Obama for that?), while they’ve downplayed her politics and kept whatever substance she has out of the lime-light. She’s been touring the country with McCain, giving the same speech at each site (literally editing only a word here or there to tailor it to the new audience). She hasn’t been allowed to be interviewed at all except grudgingly agreeing to a single soft-ball interview with Charlie Gibson that, by all accounts, was carefully conditioned and regulated by the McCain campaign. Any and all criticism of her on any and all issues has been dubbed sexist. Essentially, the McCain strategy for Palin is to go out and look the part while doing whatever they can to hide whether she actually fits the role.
That strategy was a resounding success. The people have all gone out and bought their Palingotchis. They like her, she’s good-looking (though apparently that’s an insult now. Oh that people were so “insulting” to me) and fun to listen to. But look at the polls, they are a shifting. Now people are starting to realize that while keeping a virtual pet on your keyring is a clever idea, it’s kind of boring if it can’t actually do much more than be a trendy fashion accessory. People are getting tired of Palin for the same reason people got tired of the Tamagotchi: There’s no “there” there. They like the idea of the first female Republican VP pick, but now that they’ve actually got her they’re wanting to see what she can do, and thus far, they’re not seeing much. For all the talk of reform, her politics sure look a lot like George W. Bush’s, and with her being stuck on the same script, there’s little that’s going to change that. In other words, the Palingotchi needs more than just three buttons to be entertaining.
If McCain/Palin wants to win, they need to open the feature set of the Palingotchi. That is, if there are any new features to be opened.