Posted by
Patrick Baldwin on Tuesday, November 04, 2008 11:00:00 PM
Here we go, with the handwriting on the wall, the knives are already out and Sarah Palin is the prime target. Naturally Democrats are leading the way in charging that Gov. Palin is the prime reason for McCain's loss, even placing her ahead of their normal target George W. Bush. What is more troubling is that there are already conservative voices out there who are piling on and driving the knife into Gov. Palin's back.
I can't stand by and allow this without making a few observations. Only in the last couple of weeks was Sarah Palin allowed to be Sarah Palin, and guess what, as soon as the handlers were pushed out of the way and she was turned loose, suddenly the media lost interest in her. No surprise there, they only wanted to talk about her when she was held down as a punching bag, not when she was doing the punching. When she was stuck in front of MSM tools like Katie Couric and allowed to be the target of "gotcha" questions and lots of editing, it was fun for the media. But, when Sarah was out amongst the people, showing her intelligence and ability to relate to us non-elitist types, her strengths in fighting for ethics in government and common sense energy policy, she was no longer someone the Obamatron attack dogs wanted to talk about.
Had the McCain campaign not mishandled Gov. Palin, she would have been an even greater asset to the team. Mistakes were made in this campaign, mainly along the lines of trying to make John McCain into something he was not. McCain's strength has always been in his position as a Maverick, and yet for far too long in this campaign, his handlers made him a panderer to the far-right, born-again wing of the party. McCain returned to his maverick roots, with the help of Sarah Palin, far too late. By the time he returned to his strength, it was too late to woo the moderate Democrats, Independents and the broader moderate base of the Republican party. That is where the blame belongs, not place on the shoulders of Sarah Palin, who should be warmly embraced as the future of the GOP.