A "Stupid" Campaign?

Yesterday, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), one of John McCain's closest friends and one of his campaign's top surrogates gave a quote I had to comment on. In a column by David Broder, Sen. Graham said the following about the McCain campaign's use of Sarah Palin:

"This campaign will go down in history as stupid if they don't unleash her now."

I had not realized that up to this point, Palin had never been fully "unleased" by Team McCain. Sure, she's been giving nasty attack speeches since the day she was picked, but she's basically been riding on training wheels, appearing with McCain in just about all of her public appearances in order to shield her from real questions and help McCain himself draw bigger crowds to his events and rallies.

What I gather Graham is alluding to is that he (and assuredly others) want to see Palin out there on her own lambasting Barack Obama, and Democrats generally. Many Republicans seem to believe that Palin's poor performances with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric had more to do with the campaign's overly-shielding the governor and not letting Palin be Palin, as opposed to recognizing that perhaps Palin is simply not terribly competent or smart. I am guessing that many of these same people also likely gave Palin high marks for her debate performance last Thursday.

This weekend we are getting a taste for this "unleashing", as Palin is now out on the stump alone, going after Obama for an assortment of things. I figure that we can expect a lot of this over the next 30 days, and unfortunately, the media will be all too eager to cover each Palin utterance.

Nevertheless, Lindsay Graham's comment well-illustrates one of the many broader problems with Palin. Sure, the Republican base is in love with her. That's all well and good, but what these Republicans fail to realize is that this love is not shared by most other Americans.

Palin's personal numbers have collapsed in recent weeks as her incompetence and extremist views have been exposed to sunlight. I have been arguing with several people over the last few days on Palin's debate performance. Pushing aside all of the polls (which are, incidentally, favorable to my position), I was and continue to be convinced that not only was Palin a total and utter disaster on Thursday night -- all of that expectation garbage out the window -- but that additionally, her performance did nothing to win over voters who have been on the fence.

I don't care what other arguments are being proffered: that Palin was sweet, pretty, or likeable. Palin was a train wreck in the debate. Her litany of non-answers, goofy expressions, and canned accents and expressions were as transparent as the advances of a dope trying to buy a drink for a beautiful woman a drink at a bar. Except for the star-struck Palinophiles, Americans were not and will not be swayed one bit in Palin's favor, or towards John McCain, for that matter. In this author's very humble and very non-expert opinion, Palin does not have any broad appeal to most moderate voters anymore.

If anything, Palin's debate performance well exemplified why the McCain camp has been collapsing lately. Rather than actually try to engage Biden and provide substantive answers to the questions she was asked, Palin strategically (though, I can't say that I feel that her mannerisms were that clever) resorted to winks, doggone-it's, aw-shuck'es, say it ain't so's, and hockey mom references. In other words, like John McCain with his faux campaign suspension and his actual pick of Palin herself in order to reinvigorate his fledgling campaign, Palin tried to get through the debate via stunts instead of substance. I suppose that this is a good commentary in itself for why the McCain campaign is so stagnant right now.

So if Republicans are so inclined, let them "unleash" Palin. I figure that was inevitable anyway. But if they believe she is going to save this election for John McCain, they are likely mistaken. Palin is not the savior of the Republican Party.