Palin and McCain

Carol Iannone writes:

Katie Couric interviewed McCain and Palin a couple of days ago. This was evidently an effort by the Republicans to cancel out Palin’s rather inept performance with Couric some days before that. Isn’t that odd? Instead of the veep helping the top of the ticket, McCain is riding in to rescue his veep from the media! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a whole ticket doing an interview together in any presidential campaign. Isn’t it usual to send them out separately in order to cover more territory? In a lot of the video I see momentarily flashing on TV, the two seem to be campaigning together. Is that true of Obama and Biden? One thing I do know is that after the debate, Biden was on a lot of the shows underscoring and emphasizing points and refuting some of McCain’s claims. But Palin was nowhere to be found.

LA replies:

The main conservative effort to help Palin in the aftermath of the interviews has been the cry: “Let Palin be Palin.” I sympathize with this, but the Republican advocates are caught on the horns of a dilemma. Palin does have gifts, and letting her be herself instead of prepping and packaging her and turning her into a neocon clone seems like a good idea. But the underlying problem is that her lack of familiarity with national political issues means that letting her be herself will not suffice at the level of a presidential campaign. Jonathan Alter overstated a month ago when he said she would belly flop in discussing national issues; but she clearly is not ready. “Letting Palin be Palin” in the true sense would have meant to let her develop her political career, persona, and platform at their proper speed, not suddenly elevating her into a role for which she is not prepared and which is damaging her.

Ray G. writes:

Where’s your favorite gal, Michelle Obama? They sure are keeping that rabid U.S.-hater out of the public’s eye. McCain is too concerned with appearing “bi-partisan” when he should really be pointing out the radical associations that Obama has and surely has influenced his political coming of age.

It may have worked. The media providing cover for Obama’s extreme leftism may have worked. It seems all but over now. McCain and Palin are floundering. I’ve never seen such ridicule and mocking of Palin in the media, Hollywood especially. Oprah, Saturday Night Live, Letterman—all these things add up when the public sees it repeated over and over on.

There may be no stopping “The One” now.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 30, 2008 12:16 PM | Send