Palin's Failin - Blame McCain

There's been lots of blame going around this week about Palin in preparation for McCain's assumed loss next week. McCain should be the one to take most of the blame, not Palin. Palin can be blamed for having the hubris to accept the offer, but once she was in the arena, she did the best she could. Most of us would fail under the harsh glow of that spotlight and wouldn't look nearly as good doing it. Palin is McCain's fault. He bears the responsibility for her failure. That one decision, more than anything else, should tell the voters that he's the one who's not ready to lead. It was an irresponsible choice, made for political gain without putting the country first. Anybody with a brain can see that. It's pathetic watching those poor souls, including McCain, desperately try to defend her.

Now, they're trying to blame her poor performance in her two interviews on a "hatchet job" by the elite media, and "gotcha" journalism. She was set up, they say. If she can be set up that easily by a hand-picked interviewer and Katie Couric, how in the world is she going to ride into Washington on a white moose and clean up the old boy network that's been running the place for years? If she can't handle those softball questions without preparation, how is she supposed to reform Washington? To hear them talk about it, everyone is going to run for cover when they come riding into town.

If you want to see a "set-up" go back and watch Obama's interview with Bill O'Reilly, one of the meanest and rudest interviewers on television, and be impressed with Obama's intellect, poise and ability to think on his feet. O'Reilly was obviously out to get him. He interrupted him several times, raised his voice and tried to talk him into a corner. Obama never lost his cool and responded to his attacks in a reasonable intelligent manner. He was so good that O'Reilly grudgingly admitted afterward that he was impressive.

If Palin is going to take on the special interests and reform Washington, she's going to have to do it with more than a smile and a wink. If she had the intellectual horsepower to clean up Washington, she would have easily handled Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric.