Barracuda Bandwagon

You betcha.

Former GOP operative Patrick Ruffini sees a Lazarus scenario in a post titled "Is Sarah Palin the Right's Howard Dean?" (who bounced back from 2004 to become DNC chairman):

"Everyone remembers Howard Dean for the 'scream' but I think his example provides a context in which Sarah Palin could lose the election, but ultimately win the party and pave the way for a conservative victory in the future more meaningful than McCain-Palin '08 would be.

"I'm rooting for Sarah Palin, and in temperament she is nothing like Dean . . .

"Who seems to be the flashpoint in this elite-grassroots war currently raging in the GOP? Like Dean, it's Sarah Palin.

"Yet, there is a big risk coming up in 15 days. If McCain-Palin loses, and the conventional wisdom hardens that Palin was a big part of the reason for it, the GOP could will learn the wrong lessons from 2008. It will be said that McCain should have picked an uninspiring establishment VP. If we listen to Brooks, Noonan, and Frum, the next time out, the establishment will be emboldened in its natural distrust of happy warrior populists like Palin who bring their own political base to the table . . .

"If instead the lesson of Palin is that we need to pick safe, uninspiring candidates (who will get utterly clobbered by Obama's $1 billion+ re-election campaign, btw) who don't offend Christopher Buckley, then I fear we are in for a long winter indeed."

We're certainly in for a long winter of feuding pundits unless McCain-Palin pulls it out.

David Corn, still focused for some reason on 2008, is less generous:

"My rough survey of the Rs and conservatives I have encountered on the street, at political events, and in green rooms at TV studios is that about one half to two-thirds will admit they believe is that Palin is either a misguided error on McCain's part that can be overcome or an act of blatant misjudgment that has led to a freakin' disaster . . .

"The RNC has done a lot more than put lipstick on a pig. It's been dressing up an albatross.

"Should McCain lose on November 4, I wonder if he will ever acknowledge that Palin was a major part of his downfall."