The Great Palin Panic Of 2008

[kskiska]

Gov. Sarah Palin has lost control of her public image, several top-level McCain advisers said this weekend, and even a baseline performance in Thursday's debate with Joe Biden may be too late to recover it.

The decision to sequester Palin from the national political press corps was made with the assumption that the afterglow from her convention speech would last; a month later, even some Republicans are beginning to have a less favorable opinion of her.

Her knowledge of policy has seemed at times no more than inch deep, and even admirers have complained that her penchant for returning to talking points sounds artificial. Several times the campaign has had to clean up her remarks for her, such as on Saturday, when she hinted at a view of U.S.-Pakistani relations that was closer to Barack Obama's.

Aides questioned why CBS's Katie Couric was given a second interview with Palin after Palin's responses were ridiculed.

One McCain aide complained that too few surrogates are making the affirmative case for her -- she has defenders, to be sure, but they're sparse and they're generally defending her from specific charges. Aside from a single interview with Sean Hannity, she hasn't appeared on a single talk radio show, hasn't held a single conference call with conservative activists, nor she has participated in a telephone call with conservative bloggers. In turn, these conservatives have largely stopped rallying to her defense.

more…
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/the_great_palin_panic_of_2008.php

[Warpy]

1. A second interview?

My understanding was that it was a single interview, aired in two parts. She just didn't get any smarter during the whole thing.

I hope they're panicking. They need to panic. She's dreadful.

[endthewar]

3. I think that she's giving Couric another separate interview

I think it's supposed to be taped today and tomorrow. I read that at least one of the days was going to be some kind of "a day in the life of" type of things. Can't get much more of a positive setting than just having someone follow you around while you try to look busy.

Obviously the McCain camp decided that they needed to get another interview to take attention off of the first Couric interview.

[yellowcanine]

5. I heard it has already been taped and it has more gaffes then the first one.

[Warpy]

6. The gift that keeps on giving

The only people who will be impressed by that woman are the NO information voters who let the flood of unrelated words and catch phrases wash over them with absolutely no attempt at trying to understand any of them.

They exist, they vote, and they're going to find her bright and articulate.

[thereismore]

2. She is a no show. People had no time to get used to her. This was a mistake of the campaign. nt

[yellowcanine]

4. You can put a teleprompter and canned speech in front of a political lightweight but she is still a

political lightweight.

[thereismore]

10. True. I am actually amazed that the media are telling the truth for once. nt

[paparush]

7. And I thought Cheney was a shadow VP.

Palin is a complete no show.

[MISSDem]

8. But she wears Naughty Monkey shoes. Don't you understand

that makes everything ok?

[phycomycetes]

9. "Palin is connecting with the people"

Here an excerpt of the article:

Jill Hazelbaker, McCain's chief spokesperson, denied any internal concern. "Governor Palin is a huge asset to our ticket and she's going to do just fine this week." Referring to a Palin public appearance in Central Florida, she said, "60,000 people in FL last week is a pretty good indicator that she's connecting."


...I think you can only state that 60,000 people in FL means that she's a spectacle - not more.
After all, think of all the coverage a stranded whale gets - does this mean the whale is connecting with the people?



(I feel sorry for any stranded whale - not so much for Palin - so please forgive me for the analogy!)

[reprobate]

11. Read the Kathlene Parker column out today. Palin is toast.

Even Repugs are running from her. Rather than boosting McLame's campaign, she is helping destroy him.

If a right wing nutbot like Parker is ashamed of her as VP candidate, there's little hope for their campaign with her a heartbeat away from the oval office.