Good Tuesday morning. The Republican National Committee buys TV time in deep-red MONTANA and WEST VIRGINIA, a sign the party is scrambling to stave off a historic landslide a week from today. “Tough environment,” one Republican official says sardonically. The McCain campaign has not officially given up on VIRGINIA but a top official concedes it is LOST, while maintaining that a PENNSYLVANIA miracle can still get Sen. McCain to 270. He and Gov. Palin will be there repeatedly before Election Day. But should they also be shoring up Nevada, now a must-win?
[....]
Gov. Palin, to Fox's SEAN HANNITY on "Hannity & Colmes": "I think it's very close, and I think there is a lot of enthusiasm. ... John and I have both been in that underdog position over and over again. And you know what? I, in my career, happen to take on the good old boy network more than once. Having the scars to prove it. Being in the underdog position, it motivates us. Makes us work harder. And I believe that yes, the wisdom of the people will prevail on Nov. 4.”
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”
***In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”
We're a week away from the election, and we've got McCain aids calling Sarah Palin names well beyond the "diva" stage and heading into the "whack job" stage. If this trend continues, what are the McCain aids going to call Sarah Palin on the day after the election? Certain....female anatomical body parts?
I will admit that I do not like Sarah Palin. I think she is arrogant, conniving, and vindictive--in a sense, "a whack job." I believe that she is completely unqualified for the vice president's office, and I believe that she would be a disaster for this country if she became president via that "heartbeat away." But I am a small blogger that can criticize Sarah Palin's qualifications, her opinions, her political career, and possibly her judgement. But now watching the Straight Talk Express become consumed in an inferno of hate and blame within itself, I'll admit that I do feel a little sorry for Sarah Palin. She is not the complete blame for this McCain campaign's self-destruction. True, Sarah Palin does deserve a chunk of the blame for accepting the vice presidential nomination when she obviously was not qualified, and clearly showed the American people just how unqualified she was. But there is also plenty of blame to go around to these McCain aids that are calling Sarah Palin names. There is blame on McCain advisers Rick Davis and Steve Schmitd, for attempting to make the McCain campaign a campaign of "personality," rather than issues, and to fit a square McCain campaign into a Rovian playbook hole. There is blame on John McCain himself, for rebooting his campaign a half dozen times, for sucking up to just about every conservative interest group, for going on the "kitchen sink" negative attacks against Democratic challenger Barack Obama, and for choosing an obviously unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate. This was a campaign that utilized the Rovian playbook a third time, one that divided the electorate, energized the base, and used fear to peel off enough moderate and independent votes from the Democratic side in order to place another Republican into the White House. This playbook worked for George W. Bush twice. But by the end of September, there was already too much fear within the American public--fear of the slowing economy, a declining stock market and slumping 401K statements. Fear of unemployment, foreclosures, and falling housing prices. The American people didn't need fear--they needed hope, and a vision of change to send the country back to the right track. Barack Obama presented that vision of hope and change. John McCain presented the vision of fear. And now with seven days left until the election, the American people have just about made up their minds in embracing Barack Obama's vision, over that of John McCain's.
The McCain staffers realize it, and they are scrambling to escape by blaming each other, and by blaming Sarah Palin for this sinking McCain campaign.
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