What Palin Damage-control Costs the GOP

[torbird]

We all know, by now, just how dumb Sarah Palin is. We also know, or have heard, that she is unteachable. We've seen that she will, when flustered, bull ahead with gibberish-laced talking points that may be to a lifelong Republican the equivalent of a sexual fever-dream, but to rational Americans are simply rubbish.

So what did the McCain people do?

First, they sent her to Philly for 4 days. Where she got booed by protesters, spouted off to a grad student, and made no positive contributions to the weekend news cycle.

Then, amid reports that Palin was not doing so hot in the debate prep, the campaign publicly announced that she would have to go to debate boot camp. How humiliating.

Now, McCain has to escort Palin on CBS News because Katie "The Killer" Couric is going to demolish Palin, again, unless John Wayne McCain is by her side. And yet, we are already hearing whispers of a new, even-more-oh-my-God-awful video that will break soon from CBS, wherein Palin cannot name a single SCOTUS case other than Roe v. Wade.

So what does this bailout of Sarah Palin cost the GOP?

For one thing, all this attention on one of the party's lesser lights (a dim bulb, as it were) means almost no national coverage of any close GOP races around the country. Sarah Palin has subsumed local politics.

More important is the damage to the McCain campaign itself. While he's holding her purse, Johnny Mac can't be taking his naps. Or doing solo events. Or preparing for his next ass-kicking at the hands of Barack Obama. The old soldier is not being allowed to win! And to top it all off, McCain dragging Palin around the TV circuit this week only reflects his own uncontrollable, anger-triggered impulse to strike back at his critics at all costs. Look, this can only lead to one of two things: either McCain succeeds in wringing an "I was wrong, kind of" from Couric and others, thereby restoring some luster to Palin but dangerously raising expectations for her at the debate, too; or else everyone shrugs off his media blitzkrieg and he has wasted a whole week confirming everyone's belief that he is a fool.

Also, and more urgent, in order for Palin to appear cogent (and by early reports, she was only semi-cogent, but that's 50% better than she's ever been up to now), she had to memorize a whole set of names and facts that, because she has said them on national TV tonight, she can't exactly use as "new" material at the debate Thursday. So she now has to go back and learn a whole new set of information in only 2 days. Impossible.

If Palin looks like a fool Thursday -- and she will -- it's just another disaster for the McCain people. But, with his poll numbers sinking and people realizing they just don't like him or his running mate very much, there are only so many disasters the campaign can afford in the short-run.

I don't expect a mediocre showing at the debate Thursday to kill the McCain campaign. But it should put it on life support.

[livetohike]

1. McCain is not rational and the last few weeks have shown that

He has the media against him now and a couple of months ago they were BFF. Election day cannot come soon enough. We have to get this country back together again.

[Madam Mossfern]

2. I think it's all a ruse

and that she will do brilliantly at the debate.

I'm a pessimist by nature; if things go wrong, I knew it, but if things go well, I'm pleasantly surprised

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. If it's true that McCain has a vile temper, and has even called his wife, a c____...

and insults with the "F" word anyone who pisses him off (and apparently he gets pissed off quite easily), can you just IMAGINE what he's saying about Sarah Palin's constant displays of ignorance and stupidity? He must be saying something like this:

"THIS B____H HAD BETTER NOT LOSE ME THE PRESIDENCY DAMMIT!! YOU PEOPLE TOLD ME THIS LITTLE ______ WOULD KNOW HER STUFF! WHAT THE F_____ WERE YOU PEOPLE THINKING? DID YOU HAVE YOUR HEADS UP YOUR ____ LIKE SHE DOES?....."

[mokawanis]

4. and while she will try to stick to rehearsed talking points

during the debate chances are fairly good that she'll wander off the map and speak impulsively about things she clearly does not understand. One or two major blunders on her part pretty much ensures countless media replays that will reinforce her reputation of being woefully ignorant.