There Is No Maverick Behind The Curtain

When I was growing up in rural Washington, Georgia, the first city in America named after George Washington and incorporated in 1783, one of my favorite yearly pastimes was watching The Wizard of Oz with my late grandmother, Mrs. Bessie Mae Hayes. One of my favorite scenes was when Dorothy and her travelling caravan of friends with Toto in tow finally reach the land of Oz. Dorothy and her friends thought that there was a Wizard in Oz who possessed some magical power to grant them their individual wishes and above all who could return Dorothy to her native home of Kansas. After a lot of noise and an awesome sideshow by the purported Wizard, Toto just happens to run behind the throne and pulls up the curtain. To the shock and disappointment of Dorothy and her friends they discover that there is not a wizard behind the curtain but a mere man! This was not the last time that a curtain was pulled up and we discovered something behind the curtain other than we imagined.

Fast forward to the 2008 Republican Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Governor Sarah Palin wooed and won conservative after conservative. She was hailed as the "savior" of John McCain’s campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America. Senator John McCain, the self-styled "Maverick" was given credit for picking another "Maverick." Gov. Palin was an overnight sensation that woke up the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Faye Buchannan and the Reverend James Dobson. Her star rose rapidly and blazed the political skies like Halley’s Comet. She could so no wrong and if you spoke any ill of her, then you were threaten to be led out and hung on stakes like the alleged witches of Salem. Sarah Palin’s approval ratings were off the charts. Even some of my diehard Democratic friends like "Mo" and "Rat" had fallen under the "Palin Spell" and became her personal publicists! I warned them that her momentum would wane in the very near future. I told them that some Toto somewhere was going to pull up the curtain and we would see that there was not a maverick behind the curtain.

An Alaska legislative bi-partisan panel played the role of Toto pulling up the curtain the first time revealing that there was not a maverick back there but rather a Governor who was bent on destroying her former brother-in-law by using the office of Alaska Governor to do so.

CBS evening news anchor Katie Couric took her turn at playing the role of Toto next in an interview with Governor Palin. Palin revealed to the nation and the world that the "anointed maverick" did not know the campaign issues as she stumbled and stuttered through her answers to an entrée of important questions that someone at her level should be able to rattle off in rapid succession with a convincing clarity. Again, we learned that there was not a maverick behind the curtain but a Governor who was not ready for prime time.

Who would have ever thought that " clothes" would take a turn at being Toto? Remember how Governor Palin made a play on "Joe six-pack" and the average American proclaiming that she could relate to everyday working people? Excuse me but the average American does not have the kind of easy access to someone who can go out and buy them $150,000 worth of clothes! This is not the act of a maverick. Instead, these are the actions of a "shopper." The self-proclaimed maverick had to let someone know her taste in order to ring up a $150,000 bill.

The final role of Toto has been reprised by the results of a fresh poll taken by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation suggests that Sarah Palin may be hurting Republican presidential nominee John McCain more than she’s helping him. Fifty-seven percent of likely voters questioned in the poll said Palin does not have the personal qualities a president should have. That’s up 8 points since September. Fifty-three percent say she does not agree with them on important issues. That’s also higher than September. "Just after the GOP convention in early September, 53 percent said they would vote for Palin over Joe Biden if there were a separate vote for vice president. Now, Biden would beat Palin by 12 points if the running mates were chosen in a separate vote," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

In the waning hours of the longest political campaign in the history of the United States we have learned from Toto that we cannot buy the "maverick" talk because there is no maverick behind the curtain. Sarah Palin is merely a Governor who started out talking a good game but Toto has shown us that there she but merely a sidekick on a team who would continue to push policies that divide and distract. Thanks Toto!