Democrats have been rubbing their hands in glee at the tribulations of the Republican party.They're politically bankrupt, ideologically challenged and searching desperately for leadership in the most inopportune places - Rush Limbaugh, anybody?
Yet quietly, methodically and efficiently, an unlikely GOP hero has been creeping into the spotlight - John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain.
Blond, beautiful and brainy, Meghan McCain makes an unlikely Republican, even by her own standards. Before her father stood for the presidency, she was a registered Independent with notably moderate views.
Clambering onto the campaign bus with her father, however, changed everything - starting with her signing up as a registered Republican.
During the 2008 presidential election, I argued that Meghan McCain was the Republican's secret weapon: She did something nobody else in the GOP had dreamed of - gave McCain's campaign a voice accessible to young, hip people (not easy, given that her Dad, no matter how cool he was, would still have been the oldest president to enter the White House if he'd won.)
She achieved this by hitting the information superhighway while she hit the campaign trail; giving us McCain Blogette - a regularly updated photo-blog showcasing her adventures on the trail.
Her blogs were fun, enthusiastic and real. She even kept readers up to date with hit tunes from her campaign play list (proving that those 'hip' credentials were genuine) and revealed the enthusiasm and support regular Americans had for her father's presidential bid (my favorite was when they visited a Harley Davidson convention.)
Meghan's grasp of social media gave her an audience that nobody else in the Republican party had access to - and the people who'd tuned in during the campaign continued to follow her even after the election ended.
That popularity stems from the way she continues to express her heartfelt, earnest beliefs. They resonate deeply with her audience, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that they defy traditional Republican dogma - like, for example, her most recent article for The Daily Beast - Memo to the GOP: Go Gay.
She confronted an ugly truth - that the Republican party needs to shed its homophobic reputation. While that belief sparked outrage amongst entrenched conservatives, it turned her into something of a Republican Rockstar amongst younger, more moderate voters - arguably the only political demographic that really matters.
"If the Republican Party has any hope of gaining substantial support from a wider, younger base, we need to get past our anti-gay rhetoric," Meghan writes. She goes on to highlight the support the gay community once had from an unlikely Republican hero - their revered leader, Ronald Reagan. "The ultimate Republican rockstar helped fight anti-gay proposition because he knew it was wrong."
Most Republicans argue that Reagan could do no wrong, so maybe it's time they started following their mentor's example.
If anybody needed proof that Meghan's article was powerful and convincing, they need look no further than the wags at Comedy Central. She stirred up admiration from the acerbic wits behind The Daily Show, who gently poked fun in this article:
"Meghan McCain may claim to be a Republican… But — as is easily evidenced in her newest piece from The Daily Beast — she has clearly shown herself to be neither borderline mentally-disabled nor small-minded and bigoted…"
The fact that she's softened the most hardened of the 'elite, liberal media' means that Meghan's actually onto something. She's a Republican young people listen to - proudly standing for the best of everything the Republican party represents - small government, low taxation, personal responsibility and individual freedoms - while soundly rejecting every negative albatross hung around the GOP's neck.
If the entrenched die-hards in the GOP can summon up the courage to listen to her, Meghan McCain might prove herself to be voice that leads the Republican party out from political obscurity and into the 21st century.
Keep an eye out - I hope we'll be hearing a lot more from her.
hit the New York Times bestseller list entirely on it's credentials as a children's book. The fact that it's about Republican presidential candidate John McCain - and penned by his daughter, Meghan - might have given sales a push!
This is the real deal, hot off the press from McCain's gorgeous daughter (and eminent blogger) 
Personally, I think the only way to top McCain-brand candy would be an Obama-brand beer (preferably dark and rich, just like the candidate himself.) 
