Perpetual Palin

I didn't think the latest post-mortem on Sarah Palin would cause much of a ripple.

After all, the Vanity Fair piece trods some well-plowed ground: how clashes between the governor and her McCain advisers led to the most troubled vice-presidential campaign since Tom Eagleton admitted to being treated for depression.

And in a week when Mark Sanford seems to be confessing to some new sin every day and Michael Jackson is posthumously producing pseudo-news every day, it seemed likely that the Palin debate would drift into the ether.

Well, I was wrong. Never underestimate the extent of the media's Palin fascination. The article has triggered another round of finger-pointing among conservative strategists and pundits.

While she was McCain's running mate, Palin sparked a GOP civil war between those who felt she was a refreshing and authentic conservative voice and those who were appalled by the prospect of this rookie being a heartbeat away. And there's a legitimate debate to be had over her tenure as governor and whether she is a plausible contender for 2012. But instead the media keep revisiting her campaign trial by fire.

Here's a bit of the Todd Purdum piece:

"The top McCain aides who had tried hard to work with Palin--Steve Schmidt, the chief strategist; Nicolle Wallace, the communications ace; and Tucker Eskew, her traveling counselor--were barely on speaking terms with her, and news organizations were reporting that anonymous McCain aides saw Palin as a 'diva' and a 'whack job.' . . .

"By all accounts, Palin was either unwilling, or simply unable, to prepare. In the run-up to the Couric interview, Palin had become preoccupied with a far more parochial concern: answering a humdrum written questionnaire from her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman . . .

"Palin was coping not only with the crazed life of any national candidate on the road but also with the young children traveling with her. Some top aides worried about her mental state: was it possible that she was experiencing postpartum depression? (Palin's youngest son was less than six months old.) Palin maintained only the barest level of civil discourse with Tucker Eskew, the veteran G.O.P. operative who had been made her chief minder. A third party had to shuttle between them to convey even the most rudimentary messages. 'She started to hedge her bets,' the same McCain friend says. 'Frequently, she would be concerned about how something would play in Alaska. What? You're worried about your backside in Alaska when there are hundreds of millions of dollars being spent?' One longtime McCain friend and frequent companion on the trail was heard to refer to Palin as 'Little Shop of Horrors.' "

Bill Kristol rips the article in the Weekly Standard:

"Lefty journalist Todd Purdum has a hit piece in the new Vanity Fair on Sarah Palin. You don't have to be a big Palin fan to recognize the article is full of dubious claims, and is dependent on self-serving stories provided on background by some of the people who ran the McCain campaign into the ground.

"Here's a highlight of Purdum's reporting: 'More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin's extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of 'narcissistic personality disorder' in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--'a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy'--and thought it fit her perfectly.'