Glen Beck Defends Sarah Palin's "White Trash" Family Values

In what had to be the very worst defense for troubled vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family yesterday, former alcoholic turned conservative talk show host Glen Beck referred to himself as "White trash" and argued that there are many "white trash families" in America and Sarah Palin should be vice president because she represents those "White trash" family values in a interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Thanks a lot Glen Beck.

As bad as Glen Beck's defense of Palin actually was, the truth of it is that such a tawdry image of the Palin family is certainly beginning to emerge in the minds of many voters and is already proving to be a real drag on the McCain ticket with new polls indicating falling poll numbers rather than any signs of a early convention bounce.

In all fairness, Palin will have a decent opportunity to state her case tonight in a speech at the Republican Convention. But the image of a trashy and troubled family has already been the main image that most voters have seen so far of this Palin bunch.

So far the story about the Palin bunch has hardly been the story of the "Brady Bunch". Palin's pregnant unmarried teenage daughter has been a main news item for the last two days drowning out most other GOP Convention news. The teenage father's MySpace page was taken down yesterday because of all the obscene and offensive language that proved as yet another embarrassment. It seems that the "F" word is apparently one of his favorite adjectives by far. This young guy was also in trouble for illegal fishing only last year. Gov. Palin is also involved in an ethics investigation due to her defense of her sister who has been married no less than four times so far. Her sister's former state trooper husband actually tasered their 11 year old son in one claimed domestic incident. Gov. Palin's husband has been arrested for driving under the influence. And the steady drip-drip of conduct suitable for the very worst of tralier park or carny folk families only continues by the day, not to mention the controversial political issues surrounding this poorly selected vice presidential pick by John McCain. John McCain could not have hardly done any worst with this pick. Right away the troubled vice presidential picks of George McGovern in 1972 and Walter Mondale in 1984 come to mind. The vice presidential pick problems were a main ingredient in both candidates only winning but just one state and the District Of Columbia in the 1972 and 1984 elections. John McCain is also flirting with a looming electoral disaster the longer he hangs on to this troubled vice presidential pick of his and does not request that she leave the ticket.

Where John McCain really went wrong is that Palin's name was not floated around on a short list like several others, which would have allowed for any negative items to surface and McCain could have chosen another less controversial choice. Instead McCain floated the names of some like a Tom Ridge or Mitt Romney like some "Trojan Horse", and nothing really new or startling really surfaced, which meant that these were relatively safe picks, while McCain may have been actually considering someone untested and unproven like a Palin.

But when McCain went for this wild card "Hail Mary" pass candidate when he chose the controversial Palin, there was no real good reason for McCain to make such a politically risky pick. McCain was very close in the polls before he chose Palin, and so far Palin has only depressed McCain's poll numbers as the steady stream of new revelations only makes her into a joke for the late night comics and the gossip talk of the nation for all of the trashy conduct surrounding this family. McCain might have felt that choosing a female would bring in some Hillary Clinton voters, but the Democrats could have hardly been more united last week at their convention. And so far Palin has only been a damaging choice at worst or a pandering candidate at best. Other than Palin being the same gender as Clinton, there is no similarity, and few Clinton voters are likely to jump on the Palin bandwagon which appears to be losing it's wheels as new troubling revelation surfaces.

It is also doubtful that the news will get any better for Palin as the media seems willing to pile on and find some new dirt every day because this whole Palin issue is only snowballing downhill. The only thing that really works is to open the window and let in some fresh air and give Palin the heave ho and choose another vice presidential pick who brings a lot less baggage with her. But McCain probably won't do this and instead ride this downbound train all the way into the ground and an election day disaster.

The McCain Campaign has been plagued with numerous problems with poor selections for economic advisers as well as other critical positions, however none has had the important public image problems like the troubled vice presidential pick of Palin so far. And one of the worst problems for McCain has been the conservative bloggers and the right wing of the Republican Party who only continue to stand behind Palin rather than see the light that she will only mean a near certain McCain defeat in November. Those that continue to stand behind Palin must be too young or too arrogant to remember the 1972 and 1984 electoral disasters of McGovern and Mondale, largely due to their troubled vp selections. But this crowd is into hard core right wing ideology struggles and is blind to political reality grounded in rationality and objectivity. Well, they'll have four years to think about this looming electoral loss.