An Unmitigated Liability

Watching Sarah Palin on SNL last night, it was hard not to reflect on the absurdity of her candidacy.  In the opening skit, Palin (played by Tina Fey) was giving her first press conference, something that has yet to happen in real life.  At the end of the skit, Palin herself came out and replaced Fey on the stage.  She turned to the camera and said "no, I'm not going to take any of your questions" and then delivered the show's famous tagline opening: "live from New York it's Saturday night!" 

It would be funny if it weren't so scary.  This is the person John McCain chose to be his replacement if he were to die or become incapacitated in office.  We're now just over two weeks from the election, and she has yet to give a press conference.  She has not yet appeared on a single one of the Sunday news shows.  To date, she has only sat down for two legitimate interviews, both of which she badly bombed.  In her one debate, she openly refused to answer the questions that were put to her by the moderator.  

This woman is a joke.  She is an insult to the intelligence of every single American (many of whom--judging by the attendance at her rallies--clearly deserve the insult).  She is also, despite what the Pat Buchanans of the world say, an unmitigated liability to the McCain campaign.  She is costing him the support and respect of nearly every self-respecting conservative intellectual.  Scores of reliably conservative newspapers are endorsing the Democratic ticket for the first time, and most of them are citing Palin as one of the chief reasons.  Palin is also polling horribly among everyone outside of the conservative cocoon (i.e., the 25% who still think Bush is doing a heckuva job).

As far as the surrogate role goes, she is also a major liability.  In order to keep from embarrassing herself and the campaign, she has to be kept away from the press.   That prevents her from doing the interview circuit like most running mates.  She can't even be trusted to do the Leno/Letterman type appearances.  All she can do is make campaign stops in what should be safely red parts of the country where angry, fringy Republicans show up and make embarrassing outbursts.  

But she's galvanizing the Republican base, right?  That's helping McCain, right?  I'm sure that's true to some extent.  But remember, it's not as if Palin is the only person in the world who could have excited the Republican base.  Imagine if McCain has chosen someone like Bobby Jindal.  Jindal would have excited the GOP base every bit as much as Palin, but he would have had much more cross-over appeal.  And while inexperienced, he comes across approximately a million times more intelligent, competent, and qualified than Palin.  No one on the Republican side would have been embarrassed to support a McCain/Jindal ticket.  The Peggy Noonans and David Brookses of the world would be singing his praises, not distancing themselves.  

So Palin really brings nothing to the ticket that others wouldn't have brought more effectively.  She is an albatross around McCain's neck, one that he richly deserves.