McCain Campaign Cracks Up, Sober Reflections upon Mortality Ensue

The collapse seems to have begun in earnest, with members of the various McCain/Palin factions jockeying for post-election position in the GOP civil wars that will be occupying us through the new year and beyond. Andrew Sullivan points to this analysis by George Stephanopoulos that has an interesting quote.

But some McCain camp insiders tell ABC News they simply couldn't put Palin out in front of the media any more than they did because she wasn't ready.

The Palin camp is fighting back, arguing that if the McCain campaign had just let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin, she would have done just fine on her own.

While I’m by no means a huge fan of John McCain, I’d have to say I have an underlying sympathy for his version of events. There’s been zero evidence so far that Palin could have become ready no matter how much handling she’d had. The absurd position from Palin’s partisans that they were mistaken in not letting her be Palinesque enough is idiot. Can Palin have been any more Palin than she has in the last eight weeks, short of shooting a moose and communicating in grunts and expressive gestures? How deep can the Palin run? Has there been any point in the last two months where you’ve looked at the news and thought, “John McCain needs to let that young go getter Sarah Palin out here to speak her mind. Enough with her being a delicate, blushing flower, cowed by the grim old men of Washington!”? I have to doubt it.

Incidentally, when did George Stephanopoulos get so old? The picture of him on the page above makes him look like William Sanderson in Blade Runner. I guess it’s been a while since I remember him from the Clinton administration, but jeez.