Perhaps one of McCain's other "razzle dazzle" moves has been having Palin "play dumb?" Could be, though I seriously doubt it.
I think she's going to be blown away and exposed as the very bad pick that she was/is come Thursday night, assuming she's still on the ticket by then. There's a sense in conservative circles (the Kathleen Parker column over the weekend calling for her to step down was a trial balloon of sorts, methinks) that she is, in fact, in over her head.
I would not be surprised at all to see the VP debate canceled or rescheduled, with Palin bowing out as early as tomorrow and someone like Lieberman or perhaps Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas stepping in. McCain is kind of damned-if-he-keeps-her, damned-if-he-dumps her now, but bringing another female onto the ticket (especially one like Hutchinson who is far more qualified) might be his best hope for still pulling this thing out. Even so, dumping Palin might alienate the Evangelicals he needs to win, so he is really, really on thin ice her. Palin would have to school Joe Biden in order for this to turn out well, and that is not going to happen. She might be able to goad Biden into doing or saying something stupid, but that too is highly doubtful.
For my part, as a former Ron Paul supporter now backing Obama, I see in Palin a woman who is very scared and fearful and also a little pissed off. My guess is she has no way of expressing it, or at least not the ways she was accustomed to in Alaska when there weren't so many cameras around. She is totally out of her element and is not handling it well, at least not yet. Welcome to the Lower 48, SLP.
She is not at all the same woman who patronizingly zinged Obama and the Dems in her acceptance speech; that was the easy part. Now she has to live up to the hype, and she can't do it. Or I should say she hasn't thus far. If she comes out Thursday and makes no major gaffes and doesn't sound like a Valley Girl who recently moved to Mankato the way she did in describing the Alaska-Russia relationship to Katie Couric, then maybe she might find her footing again and rally the non-Evangelical conservatives who initially supported her but are now turning away.
Judging from what I've seen of her, though, there's not much of a chance of that happening. Look for her instead to try and rattle Biden with ad hominem attacks and variations on standard McCain campaign talking points, but I still say she'll be hard-pressed to do even a passable job without a rabid crowd of savior-seeking, Obama-hating Republicans cheering her on.
If things go too poorly for Palin in the debate, I predict she'll be off the ticket before the next Obama-McCain debate, currently scheduled for Oct. 7.
Just my two ditties' worth...
punditty
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