Bailout Bombs

"Certainly, a significant number of Republicans were discouraged by Palin's performance in the Couric interviews that have already aired. Some Republicans believe the McCain campaign made a fundamental mistake in the Palin rollout by focusing on those traditional broadcast networks. (The only other interview Palin has done was with Sean Hannity on Fox News.) Palin is the person who almost single-handedly repaired John McCain's relations with the conservative base, and a base media strategy might have been a more effective one.

"If, a week or so after the Republican convention, Palin had done a lot of talk radio -- Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, Levin, Bennett, Hewitt, etc. -- she would have had widespread exposure to the voters most favorably disposed to her. Of course the campaign press corps would have complained, but they would also probably have been forced to use snippets from Palin's talk-radio interviews, which means that what Palin said in a friendly atmosphere would ultimately make its way to an even wider audience, one that includes independents and undecided voters. After that radio immersion period -- starting, say, about now -- Palin would do interviews with everyone."

Time's Joe Klein is unimpressed by Kristol quoting a "shrewd McCain supporter" as saying, "Every minute she spends not telling the American people something that makes them less well disposed to Obama is a minute wasted":

"Shrewd, huh? Kristol had the pleasure of Palin's company on a Weekly Standard cruise last year and is clearly smitten. [Actually the cruise stopped in Alaska.] But I'd wonder about the shelf-life of Palin's efficacy as an attack dog, especially now that the American people have come to see her as the incredible -- as in not credible -- vice presidential choice that she is. What Kristol is really saying here is that he wants Steve Schmidt to stop scripting substantive answers to questions for Palin, since that's clearly beyond her capabilities, and resume scripting attacks for her."

What's more, the Huffington Post finds that Palin is not always on message:

"Does Sarah Palin agree with Barack Obama (and disagree with John McCain) on attacking known terrorist sites inside Pakistan? Despite the Republican nominee's recent denial, evidence is mounting.

"While campaigning in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Palin commented on the possibility of a unilateral strike inside the country by saying 'if that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should.' This came one day after McCain himself, in the first presidential debate, went after Obama aggressively for taking the same position.

"Seeking to downplay her remarks on Sunday, McCain did Palin the disservice of suggesting her musings on the stump were a one-off mistake, reflecting precious little about the campaign's policy. 'I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitive policy statement made by Governor Palin,' McCain said on ABC's 'This Week.' . . . 'She understands and has stated repeatedly that we're not going to do anything except in America's national security interest and we are not going to, quote, announce it ahead of time,' McCain continued.

"But even in her notably brief record of statements on foreign policy matters, Palin has now 'stated repeatedly' something else entirely: the idea that, should intelligence provide an exact location of top Al Qaeda figures operating in ungoverned areas of Pakistan, the United States can take matters into its own hands."

Some, such as Tom Perrotta in Slate, are still trying to pigeonhole Palin:

"In the weeks since Sarah Palin made her entertaining and highly polarizing entrance onto the national stage, journalists have been scrambling to get a fix on her, attaching label after label onto the Alaska governor in the hope that one of them might stick. Is Palin a hockey mom, 'a working-class heroine juggling career and family and living out her religious convictions,' in the words of conservative writer Ross Douthat? Or is she, as Katha Pollitt would have it, 'a rightwing-Christian anti-choice extremist'? Other observers have focused on Palin's appearance, calling her a 'babe' (Rush Limbaugh), a 'MILF' (Tina Fey), a 'stewardess' (Bill Maher), and the ubiquitous 'sexy librarian' (only Google knows).

"The sheer amount of head-scratching expended on Palin might lead you to believe that she's something new and puzzling on the American scene. But she isn't quite as novel as she seems. Caribou hunting aside, Sarah Palin represents the state-of-the-art version of a particular type of woman -- let's call her the Sexy Puritan -- that's become a familiar and potent figure in the culture war in recent years."