06:15 pm
Maybe This Is Why McCain Suspended His Campaign
TPM scores early footage of Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin:
Wait a second. Didn’t McCain say something yesterday about not supporting the bailout? Or at least hinting that he might not support it? And now Palin says that we need to support it or we’re going to face a second Great Depression? Do these guys even bother to pursue the most basic message coordination?
Does anyone in the McCain campaign still think that Sarah Palin has the qualifications to be President? Does John McCain? There was, after all, this little item from earlier today:
McCain then looked around the room and gestured as if to welcome questions. The AP reporter shouted a question at Gov. Palin (“Governor, what have you learned from your meetings?”) but McCain aide Brooke Buchanan intervened and shepherded everybody out of the room.
Palin looked surprised, leaned over to McCain and asked him a question, to which your pooler thinks he shook his head as if to say “No.”
As Steve Benen over at The Washington Monthly notes,
Look, “What have you learned from your meetings?” is an easy one. It’s not a trick question, or a “gotcha” question, or even a question intended to do test Palin’s limited understand of international affairs. She could have easily said something like, “I’ve been encouraged by how much support the United States continues to enjoy around the world.” No muss, no fuss. It’s not rocket science.
But, no. The McCain campaign apparently believes the Republican vice presidential nominee is some kind of child, under strict instructions not to speak. Palin has no doubt been receiving extensive briefings on a variety of subjects, and could probably handle a random question or two, but the McCain gang is so convinced of her incompetence, they’re just not willing to take the risk — even after a genuine media backlash has begun in earnest in response to the campaign’s heavy-handed approach.
If I were Sarah Palin, I would be furious. The McCain campaign is turning her into the very parody they decried.
By the way, given the fact that McCain won’t even let Sarah Palin answer the simplest of questions, is her campaign suspended as well? Or will she continue to draw big crowds and avoid hard questions? It’s not like they need her in Washington to vote on the damn bailout.
Hat tip: Daniel Larison