Saturday Politics

On the politics front, the new GOP line (apparently) is that Sarah Palin isn't ready to be president after all—yet.



I'm certain that over the next couple of weeks the press will be pounding her and the campaign wanting to know where the access is. There'll be a lot of process stories about why isn't she talking to reporters. There'll be a lot of noise that voters, frankly, don't really care about—and as frustrated as the press is gonna be it's a smart move by the campaign because, like I said, voters don't really care about these process stories, but if she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that's something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move.

GOP strategist Todd Harris goes on to say that she'll be getting prepped for as long as two weeks before she talks to anyone in the media. The Jed Report says it best:

This has got to be one of the craziest messaging decisions ever: Harris is conceding that Palin’s not even ready to be a vice presidential candidate, let alone be president.

Kevin Drum, too:

The McCain campaign is scared to death. They knew nothing about Palin before they announced her, they relied on a cursory vetting process that has turned out to be shot full of holes, they realize now that she has no settled views on any issue of national importance and could blurt out anything at any time, and they're terrified about what might crop up next. So they're keeping her in the deep freeze.

Has it really come to this? The absolute lack of confidence McCain has in his own pick to be vice president is mind-boggling; the absurdity of this past week truly marks a singular event in the history of our Republic, and if things go wrong it'll be probably be used (alongside Florida 2000) to mark the start of its final decline.

This is monarchism, not democracy. A candidate for office needs to be accountable to the voters, not to a vague mish-mash of identitarian buzzwords. If we as a nation passively accept the Palin candidacy, if we demand nothing more than this from the Republicans or from ourselves, then American democracy is simply dead.

(Of course, a candidate should also be trusted to talk about something other than their own love of self, but we're sitting by and letting John McCain fail that test, too.)

In more positive news, at least Joe Biden continues to win my respect. Give 'em hell, Joe.