If the title you just read sounds a little crazy, McCain campaign staff, it’s understandable. However, as you will see, it quickly makes sense as this piece pursues its goal of helping the man for whom you’re sacrificing so much that at times you’d rather suffer the lesser pain of being chained to a rock to have your ever-regenerating liver eaten daily by a ravenous vulture.

But why a title that takes us from sublime thoughts about greatness and suffering to the mundanity of roadside advertising? Well, just as Prometheus gave the great gift of fire to humanity, Senator McCain has lit a great fire under conservatives with his choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Moreover, unlike Prometheus, who suffered the fate mentioned above until Heracles unleashed him, the Senator will reap only good things from his brave act if he will unleash Governor Palin to interact on a personal level with voters who are characterized variously as “ordinary folks,” “blue collar Americans,” “Reagan Democrats,” and “Blue Dog Democrats.”

How does the campaign set the stage for this strategy? Easy.

Every battleground county in every battleground state gets all the billboards it needs — billboards that say only this: “John McCain and Sarah Palin” and then, “They share our values.”

Will such billboards work? Well, Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-PA) will vouch for them because in the anti-Republican atmosphere of ’06, they helped him win a very close race against a well-financed far-out liberal, in a district heavily populated by Republicans, Blue Dog Democrats, and Independents.

Actually, the billboards will work even better in a presidential race because, much more than in other contests, voters choose a president on values and gut feelings. (Al Gore had it completely wrong when he told delegates at the DNC that “this election is close” because voters are being directed by “forces of the status quo.”)

No, Mr. Gore, this election is close because voters don’t perceive Barack Obama as sharing their values. And that is exactly where Governor Palin comes in. For example,

In Pennsylvania...
Where she is unleashed to exhibit honesty about taxes — as a tough, plain-spoken, reform governor who has battled to keep taxes down by reducing wasteful state spending and rejecting piggish federal pork and swinish federal earmarks

Where she is unleashed to exhibit her commitment to government of, by, and for the people — as exemplified when she increased the state’s cut of oil revenues to give Alaskans a fair share of the wealth that lies beneath their soil and saw to it that the money went not into the pockets of politicians but directly into the checkbooks of the state’s citizens

Where she is unleashed to exhibit honesty about the Second Amendment — as an NRA member and sportswoman who understands that despite his “moderate” talk, Obama is absolutely committed to nominating liberal activists to the Supreme Court, where just a few months ago, liberal justices came one vote short of a majority ruling that would have denied Americans the constitutional right to keep and bear arms

In Ohio...
Where she is unleashed to exhibit her embracing of life’s hardest truths — as a political leader and military mother who understands the crucial importance of a strong military and smart military policies, one of which was the necessity of giving the “surge” in Iraq a chance to succeed instead of being “all in a sweat” to accept defeat

Where she is unleashed to exhibit honesty and compassion — (1) as she tells the truth that America is in an economic war with powerful rising nations (2) speaks the truth that to win this war, parents, educators, and every other citizen must imbue children with the importance of education (3) admits the truth that in this war, the federal government and multi-national corporations have not been fully on the side of the American people

Where she is unleashed to exhibit courage — as a confident, tolerant person unafraid of the liberal “secularists” who will condemn her for speaking about how her religious faith guides her life

In Michigan...
Where she is unleashed to exhibit truth-telling about energy — as a person who, like T. Boone Pickens, understands the nation must “do it all” to become energy independent but needs a bridge of domestic oil and, especially, natural gas that allows it to travel economically and socially intact to its energy future

Where she is unleashed to exhibit a proud, self-reliance — as she describes herself and her husband as ordinary middle class Americans who work in an oilfield, belong to a union, and own a small business

Where she is unleashed to exhibit pride in herself — as one of the nation’s women, one who has eschewed the radic-lib agenda that rails against “dead white males” and embraces dangerous, failed, leftist public policies in favor of defining herself as a strong, principled, traditionalist, independent thinking, competent woman, wife, and mother unafraid to take on corrupt, entrenched members of political boys’ clubs

There are, of course, other important issues regarding both domestic and foreign policy that must be discussed as the presidential campaign blows into full force with the coming of autumn. There is also the fact that as a fresh face, Governor Palin, while bearing the worst slings and arrows of outrageous presidential politics, will have to reveal herself a political natural in substance and style.

However, the hope is that the foregoing will help you, McCain team, take full advantage of the entirety of the values issue in a manner that fans the fire your candidate ignited with his VP selection, thereby turning it into a national blaze.