Palin fever goes viral

Saw a bumper sticker driving through Wasilla this morning that simply read,”Palin Fever.”

It made me pause a moment to digest that those two simple words accurately sums up the political frenzy that’s been caused by our governor being named to the Republican presidential ticket. Whether ecstatic or physically ill with the development, America truly has caught “Palin Fever.” I cannot remember a time when a candidate for vice president garnered such a following so quickly as to overwhelm the two main headliners.

Sure, Geraldine Ferraro’s naming as Walter Mondale’s running mate on the Democratic ticket in 1984 was history-making stuff. Ferraro also generated media attention and scrutiny that was massive for her time.

But nothing that has come before can compete with what nearly 25 years of technology has done to increase the illumination and intensity of the national — and now global — spotlight.

Media outlets are clamoring for interviews with Palin, YouTube is flush with clips of our governor and former Wasilla mayor and the major cable news networks spend more time analyzing Palin, her past and her candidacy than they do Barack Obama or John McCain.

It’s been four weeks and a day since McCain announced Palin as his running mate, and a quick search for “Palin” on YouTube turns up a whopping 57,400 postings. Many of these are “viral,” a term used to describe widely distributed and viewed Internet video clips.

Whether “Palin Fever” will translate to success for the self-described hockey mom and the Republican Party won’t be known until Nov. 4. Whatever the outcome, this fever promises to be just the beginning of the viral age of politics.

—Greg Johnson, managing editor