Now I realize, McCain hasn’t screwed the pooch; they’ve given up on him. If:

1. As Max Blumenthal suggests, the Council for National Policy (LaHaye, Dobson, Ashcroft, Norquist, Oliver North, Falwell, DeLay…) chose Sarah Palin, and
2. The set of painfully inept Palin statements on various policy issues that Jim Lobe points to are the real thing, then
3. Are we looking at a pitched battle, an Armageddon if you will, of American politics?

If the Republicans have completely thrown in their lot with the so-called social conservatives, AKA right-wing Christians, they must be desperate. They can’t really expect to attract libertarians or centrist independents with a maternal version of noun-verb-POW on Charlie Rose:

National security issues. I think, you know, candidates are going to be asked, are you doing… and are your intentions to do all that you can to help secure these United States? And I think every elected official needs to ask themselves that. And I say that, Charlie, even personally. My one and only son, my 18-year-old, he just signed up for the United States Army. He is at boot camp right now and I`m thinking, you know, this kid is doing all that he can within his power to help secure and defend the United States. Every elected official had better be asking themselves, are you doing as much also? Are you doing all that you can?

Suppose Rove’s models show the Republicans bound for a historic thrashing in November. The only remaining question is whether they can keep the foothold of the filibuster. That requires retaining enough Republican Senate seats, which might be possible if the base turns out. McCain’s hopeless, so they can use the VP slot to rile up the base. They need those Senators re-elected, and they’ve got to get past all this corruption and scandal stuff ASAP. Republicans: the Party of Change! And Godliness! And the Democrats don’t have all the hot women, after all!

So they pick a woman who courageously decided to raise a baby she knew would have Down Syndrome. According to Blumenthal’s report, those gathered to hear Palin speak were so excited at the thought of her on the ticket, they were standing on their chairs. It’s a grand slam from the base’s point of view. As usual, they’re being used by the Rovians as a steppingstone to power, though in this case even the sought-after power is a pretty sorry one, and the last bastion left to them.

We’re heading for a confrontation about the place of religion in politics more open, and possibly more hostile, than we’re used to at election time. The very things that attract the Republican base to Palin are what most Americans realize we’re ridiculed for around the world. If she remains the candidate (and if she doesn’t, it’ll be even worse), she’ll be the avatar of one side and the symbol of everything the other fears and distrusts. The oil industry and the premillennial dispensationalists against the rest of us, with the war machine happy either way, as usual.

Or maybe this gambit will fail. Biden can’t attack her for inexperience in the debate or he’ll come across as overbearing; but he doesn’t have to. Biden’s a political version of Brett Favre: whether or not you root for him, it’s obvious how much he loves playing the game. Bertrand Russell says anything you’re good at contributes to happiness, and Biden’s a good speaker. All he has to do is come across as friendly and down-to-earth, as usual, and preternaturally competent, as usual, and much of the audience will be feeling sorry for Palin. But the base, if Blumenthal is right, will be cheering.