Toledo Blade Slams McSame And Caribou Barbie By: Mark W Adams

On the heels of Sarah Palin's convention speech (aka "Caribou Barbie"), the usually center-right editorial staff of the Toledo Blade is unimpressed, and calls her out for being less than advertised. Hardly the reformer a more thorough vetting by the McCain campaign would have revealed. Hardly honest either.

As a mayor, for example, she hired a lobbyist linked to Sen. Ted Stevens and Alaska's voracious appetite for federal earmarks to obtain millions of taxpayer dollars for municipal projects, money her hometown still depends on.

And about the fabled "bridge to nowhere," which Governor Palin claimed to have rejected. A closer look reveals that she was an avid proponent of that $200 million boondoggle before she was against it.

There's method to the Republican madness, a gameplan that is both transparent and counter-productive. The speech was more than the expected "red moose meat" we usually see from VP picks. What was striking was the complete void when it came to any substantive policy whatsoever. Palin instead relied on nasty wise-cracks, insults and snark.

Nevertheless, it was very well received by the partisan crowd, which was no surprise at all. After all, she was singing to the choir. But now that the cheerleader is done, it's time for an adult discussion about the problems that plague this nation. Problems that won't be solved with simple sloganeering and sarcasm.

The Blade seems to agree, that picking Palin was just another political gimmick.

Despite these contradictions with the Republican candidate's message, it is obvious that Mr. McCain would very much like to shift the public conversation to superficial aspects of Governor Palin's story - beauty queen/family-values mom/courageous political outsider - and away from a detailed examination of what he intends to do about such pesky issues as a never-ending foreign war, the energy crisis, and the crushing national debt.

He does not want the public to fully comprehend how he has been a compliant force in the U.S. Senate toward perpetuating these problems and has, at the end of the day, no real solutions to present to the American people.

Shorter Blade: They got nuttin' and are offering up a circus freakshow to distract and amuse.