Kobayashi World

The greatest trick the Republican Party ever pulled was convincing America it didn't exist.

It has been a surly and substantive experience watching the GOP convention this week. The irreducible blend of cynicism and political genius only reminds us of how brilliant the GOP is at winning the presidency, a skill the scale of which is only matched by the self-same party's propensity for sub-par governance.

If John McCain wins this election, it will be the most brilliant political maneuver in the history of American politics. While we should keep in mind that the Democrats' nomination of a sexy, skinny, 3-point swishing African with the middle name of Hussein gives the Republicans an artificial boost, there has rarely been such broad agreement among the American people on any issue other than this: George W. Bush has been a catastrophe.

If 80% of Americans agree that the country is headed in the wrong direction, we must ask ourselves two questions: when was the last time that many Americans agreed on anything, other than the weeks following Pearl Harbor or 9/11? And secondly, how is it that the governing party in such a discontented nation could harbor any hope of re-election?

Watching Sarah Palin and John McCain address the GOP delegates made me think of what it must have been like for the Soviet leadership to listen to Khrushchev after Stalin's death. Khrushchev waited until Stalin was dead to tell his peers what they already knew; Joe Steel was a sociopath and Communism would not survive unless Stalinism died with Stalin.

It turned out that Communism would survive Stalinism, but Communism could not survive Communism. Still, because Khrushchev owned up to and acknowledged the sins of his peers, he stalled history by 30 years. In a very cynical sense, this was political genius.

And in the same sense, the nomination of John McCain and his selection of Sarah Palin is the most brilliant maneuver of American politics in recent history.

The GOP should have no chance of holding onto the presidency. The only way they could do so would be to nominate a candidate whom they openly despised. And they did so. Conservatives HATE John McCain. He is an apostate in their eyes. And that is exactly why he might win.

McCain is running as a Republican on the platform of "throw the bums out!", conveniently omitting the inconvenient fact that he is one of the bums. The GOP is an incumbent party whose candidate is running on a platform of radical realignment.

This is a brilliant strategy by McCain, but it would have been in McVain had he not nominated Sarah Palin for VP. By nominating Palin, McCain has ensured heavy conservative turnout, and Palin's story is one that will appeal to the right wing far more than that even of George W. Bush.

The GOP has no business even continuing to exist as a political entity after the last 8 years. The fact that it may actually cling to the presidency, which is has held for 28 out of the last 40 years, is beyond comprehension.

John McCain hijacked his own party, and I commend him for doing so, but as most wise men recognize, a man can be adequately judged by the company he keeps.  As Republicans go, Mr. McCain is less guilty than most, but he is still guilty of the most salient crime in America today: he is a Republican.