Progressive radio show host Ed Schultz has spoken to folks inside the McCain campaign, and there’s a serious meltdown over Palin:
McCain Camp insiders say Palin “clueless”
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”
Of course this should be an attempt to lower expectations if/when the veep debate occurs, but given her recent performances (scoring a perfect -100 on every interview), I tend to believe this is real panic. And if that isn’t enough, you can’t get a more scorching indictment of Sarah Palin than this one, by Kathleen Parker at the National Review, of all places. Read some of the damning column below the fold.
Parker calls for Palin
to bail out
.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”
...If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.
What to do?
McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
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The problem (for McCain, not for us) is that she’s a fundie diva who thinks God wouldn’t give her nuthin’ she can’t handle. So she’s not going anywhere. And yes, if McCain sacks her the election’s over tomorrow - and that much, anyway, she knows.
I wonder how much cramming is actually going on in these cram sessions, and how much of it is Palin finding reasons not to sit down and study (“Who is the vice-presidential nominee here, Joe? Hmm?”)(which has got to go up Lieberman’s ass sideways)(which almost makes the whole thing worth it). The Couric interview was worse than the Gibson, and I didn’t think that was possible. She’s actually backsliding.