My friends,
You think I'm a raging, soulless liberal fiend for attacking the nomination of Sarah Palin in this space earlier in the week? Even the Republicans are admitting that the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate is "gimmicky" and "cynical." A "hot mike" at MSNBC picked up conservative columnist Peggy Noonan and former McCain campaign manager Michael Murphy discussing Governor Palin in what sounded like a postmortem for the Republicans' presidential hopes.
Check out the video here (the juicy parts are audio only); includes a short piece with transcripted selections from the piece. Unless Palin performs a miracle live onstage during her speech, I'm afraid it's not going to be enough to--sorry to extend the metaphor--resurrect this fledgling campaign.
And here's Peggy Noonan's column at the Wall Street Journal, in which she simultaneously backtracks about what she said on the hot mike (Did I say "over"? I didn't mean "over" as in over-over, like he can't win now. I was paraphrasing what party leaders mistakenly think. Seriously! It was taken out of context!! Hello?) and praises Palin as a "real and present danger to the American left, and to the Obama candidacy" (I thought she was a "cynical" choice, Peg. Now she's a revelation?). She also dwells on her use of a "barnyard epithet" (she said, "bullshit" into the hot mike, and even apologized right before she did so), when that's the least of her problems.
Enjoy!