Reactions to Sen. McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as Republican Vice Presidential nominee have revealed again the extent to which the presidential race—now completing its second season on TV—has turned into soap opera. The most interesting policy aspect of Palin as candidate is the Alaska governor’s extensive knowledge on energy, the campaign’s surprise hot topic. Whether people agree with her advocacy of mixing more energy supply with more energy conservation, people who have heard her speak on the subject are favorably impressed.

But you are not hearing much about Sarah Palin in connection with energy, are you?

Instead you’re hearing about the governor’s unfashionable hair-do and her stint as a beauty queen twenty-five years ago (nothing sexist about those topics, of course).

And about the governor’s husband’s DWI, once upon a time. And about the governor’s questionable effort to get a state trooper fired for alleged mistreatment of the governor’s sister—his ex-wife—and the sister’s son. Supposedly, he tasered the kid. That is worth a whole TV episode by itself.

But most of all, inquiring minds want to know about Bristol, the governor’s unwed 17-year-old daughter, and the baby that she’s keeping and will be birthing in four months. They make whole movies about such subjects, really.

Even without daughter Bristol’s pregnancy, hunting enthusiast Palin’s selection was sure to make vegans and PETA pals see red. But it’s Kickapoo joy juice for gun owners everywhere. Not since “Bull Moose” Theodore Roosevelt has there been a national candidate who was such a genuine big game hunter. Finally Republicans have a candidate—Pistol Packin’ Palin, Alaska’s Annie Oakley--to jolt the NRA back into action.

She is a political maverick, too, like her new best friend, John McCain, and a boat-rocking reformer in his mode, too. She opposed the abuse of federal earmarks when that was risky, and never mind that the mainstream media are attempting to make her out to be a hypocrite for having sought earmarked funds for Alaska. They apparently can’t tell the difference from seeking federal grants, which is normal, and abusing the system, which is not.

She will motivate fellow small business owners, who are not notably over-represented in national politics, where Wall Street normally beats out Main Street in both parties. And she excites fellow social issues conservatives, evangelicals and traditional Catholics alike, who have been feeling seduced and abandoned recently. She is a Feminist for Life, which of course, drives liberal feminists into frenzy.

But most of all there is crass fascination with that baby.

Sen. Obama is being careful about the subject and has warned his campaign advisers to do likewise. But do his friends get it?

In 1952 the Republicans hired a Madison Avenue advertising firm to run their campaign. Democrats said it was reducing politics to the level of soap sales. Then, in 1956, both parties hired ad firms. That very year a satirical novel called The Golden Kazoo, by John G. Schneider, came out that showcased a race set four years later, in 1960. In it the Republican candidate surged to victory after his wife became pregnant during the campaign. The fictional GOP side hyped sentiment shamelessly with a “Vote for Baby” theme.

Ridiculous, you young’ns say, except that in early1960, Democratic candidate John Kennedy’s wife, Jackie, had to be excused from campaign appearances because it turned out that—yes—she was pregnant (with “John-John”). It wasn’t as transformative a development as in The Golden Kazoo, but it certainly became a Camelot moment. Anyhow, Jack Kennedy won.

So be careful about campaigning against motherhood, even if the baby belongs to be the as-yet unwed daughter of a vice presidential candidate. Democrats are supposed to sympathize with human frailty and rail against moralists. Republicans, it always turns out, are just like everybody else. In real life, everyone has problems and, if they don’t, someone they love does. Republicans just reach different conclusions about it.

But nobody escapes the soap opera treatment.