Nice Debate Guys-- Now Back To Palin, The Real Issue

The Republican vice presidential candidate is the real issue? Absolutely, though only tangentially. She is more widely viewed as incapable of being president every time she pops her head up and utters something banal or even bizarre. And as all the craziness leaks out about her strange personal life... well, voters are starting to wonder about John McCain's judgment. And that's the issue-- his judgment, his cynicism, his patriotism, his willing to do anything he thinks will catapult him into the Oval Office, even saddle the country with someone that he knows as well as the rest of us, shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the White House unless it's on the other side of a velvet rope... with a security guard watching closely.

And it isn't only Democrats and independents who have taken note. Yesterday we mentioned that a columnist for the Republican Party magazine National Review had asked Palin to resign from the ticket for the good of the country. That was followed by troubling stories in the Politico and NY Times. Politico: "A growing number of Republicans are expressing concern about Sarah Palin’s uneven-- and sometimes downright awkward-- performances in her limited media appearances. 

Tony Fabrizio, a GOP strategist, says Palin’s recent CBS appearance isn’t disqualifying but is certainly alarming. “You can’t continue to have interviews like that and not take on water.” 

“I have not been blown away by the interviews from her, but at the same time, I haven’t come away from them thinking she doesn’t know shit,” said Chris Lacivita, a GOP strategist. “But she ain’t Dick Cheney, nor Joe Biden and definitely not Hillary Clinton.” 

The Times was similar: "The drip, drip, drip of bad reviews keeps falling this week against Gov. Sarah Palin, whose two-day segments of interviews with CBS’ Katie Couric have weakened conservatives’ initial embrace of and enthusiasm for the vice-presidential nominee. As if Senator John McCain already hadn’t faced a rough week, which started with conservative columnist George Will bemoaning the Republican candidate’s positions on the economic bailout and suggesting Mr. McCain may be unfit to be president."

In a column on Thursday, conservative Rich Lowry compared Senator McCain to the “proverbial cartoon character over the edge of the cliff, in midair, desperately flapping his arms and somehow maintaining altitude.” Mr. McCain, he continues, has been “making moves that mark him as different, but can be seen as risky or gimmicky.” One of those moves, according to Mr. Lowry, was adding Governor Palin to the Republican ticket:

Does Palin know enough to be a national candidate right now? No, but she can be mostly walled off from the press. Will attacking Obama on Fannie and Freddie open McCain to attack because one of his top aides lobbied for the organizations? Yes, but he can bulldog through it. Is going to Washington going to help much of anything? Probably not, but the symbolism matters. All the unconventional moves risk eroding McCain’s reputation as a steady hand, but the alternative is simply being overwhelmed by the gravitational pull of the public’s desire for change.

And at the American Spectator, Philip Klein twice reviewed Governor Palin’s interviews this week. At first, he said: “Her answer that not supporting a bailout could mean a Great Depression was off message and irresponsible. For the rest of the interview, it was just lots of tired cliches, and random jargon that made it seem as if she was reading off of mental index cards. I know a lot of conservatives like Sarah Palin and always rush to her defense. But it’s absolutely not meant as an insult to say that she simply is not ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

If you visualize Mooselini as president and then go out and vote for her and McCain, who in the end views himself as a low ranking monkey compared to the clearly superior Obama, you and your children deserve what comes next: