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McCain and Palin are about to embark upon a rather high-stakes gamble, although it is unlikely that it is of their own design. Instead of splitting off and attending campaign events seperately, and thereby covering more ground, it sounds like they are going to do the home stretch of the campaign together in tandem.  Interesting, unprecedented, and fraught with both pros and cons.

The logic being that with this they have a \”magical chemistry\” that works so well. And that with our 24-hour news national media these days, local events aren\’t as necessary in an campaign. There is a certain degree of sense to that. Each campaign is viciously watching the others slightest move, ready to pounce on the smallest gaffe. Plus the pundits in television are ready to sign praises of every Democratic sneeze, and talk radio hosts are ready to obsess glowingly over every Republican hiccup. And their respective armies in the blogosphere, it\’s unlikely that any move/phrase/action, whether good or bad is likely to be dutily reported instantly to an already weary public. One need look no further than the fact that \”lipstick on a pig\” was apparently so noteworthy as to dominate an entire news cycle.

So there is a certain bit of truth to the idea that even if the candidate is campaigning in say….Germany, you\’re gonna hear every little detail, and analysis of every inflection. And local news stations do tend to just parrot whatever the new networks have to say, so that they can concentrate on cutesy local \”human interest\” stories about someone\’s particularly clever cat or other nonsense.

However, the McCain campaign can talk about their \”magical chemistry\” all they want, but it is highly unlikely that is the sole, or even major, reason for the tandem campaign events. Fact of the matter is that McCain has become Palin\’s running mate. McCain\’s campaign was flat-lining and the road ahead was rough.

Since Palin was announced the money has flowed in and the enthusiasm has soared. And the crowds, oh the crowds, they have turned out…..for Sarah Palin. Were they to split McCain would likely have to deal with the embarassment of anemic lethargic crowds once again, while his running mate is packing, and rocking, the house. So McCain is forced to accept the fact that he has to ride Palin\’s coattails all the way to November, or suffer the public emasculation of being relegated to secondary status.

For Obama, every cloud has a silver lining. He may not know how to deal with Sarah Palin. His tragic attempts to do so have only resulted in him not even shooting himself in the foot, but blowing the whole leg off. On the other hand, the presence of Sarah Palin does shorten McCain\’s reach quite a bit.

So what\’s faster? A hobbling Obama? Or Sarah Palin, with McCain on her back? We\’ll find out in November.

[Crossposted at True North]