05 November 2008

We Dodged a Bullet

The election is completely over and the vice presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin is now completely nonviable.

What's interesting is that the news media is diving head first into previously embargoed information from campaign sources about how badly Palin got along with the McCain campaign, and how much of a dummy she really was.  Those early weeks when Palin was held back from the media was clearly the best decision, because she would have caused immense damage to the McCain campaign.

Word is leaking out now that Palin did not know what countries are covered by NAFTA (that would be Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), and she didn't know that Africa was a continent as opposed to a single country.  

Other reports indicate her fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment's rights to free speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, wrongly assuming the First Amendment is degraded when a public official, such as herself, is criticized by the media, when they attacked her for questioning Obama's associations with questionable individuals.

It has now leaked that Palin was prepped for her first media interview with Charlie Gibson, but refused to be prepped for the interview with Katie Couric.  Her lack of preparation totally showed. Palin's non-answer to Couric's question about what newspapers and magazines she reads to shape her world view now makes a lot of sense.  She obviously didn't read any.

Also leaking now is Palin going on shopping sprees for herself and her husband using funds from a major donor, as well as credit cards from campaign underlings, who now want to be reimbursed.  All this spending was far beyond the already reported $150,000 spent by the RNC.

McCain made a huge  gamble in picking Palin without properly vetting her, and he simply lost. Most Americans sensed this already, but the truth is coming out now.

We certainly dodged a bullet, that of a Sarah Palin vice presidency.

She is being treated as a scapegoat now.  And, in my opinion, she has little chance of re-emerging as a national candidate in future.