Krauthammer scratches his neocon head and says McCain's choice seems "near suicidal"

[BeyondGeography]

The Palin Puzzle

McCain had been steadily gaining on Obama (before the inevitable convention bounce) and had the race in a dead heat in a year in which the generic Democrat is running ten points ahead of the generic Republican. He had succeeded in making this a referendum on Obama. The devastating line of attack was, "Is he ready to lead?"

The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead -- on the theory that because Palin is a maverick and a corruption fighter, she bolsters McCain's claim to be the reformer in this campaign. In her rollout today, Palin spoke a lot about change. McCain is now trying to steal "change" from Obama, a contest McCain will lose in an overwhelmingly Democratic year with an overwhelmingly unpopular incumbent Republican administration. At the same time, he's weakening his strong suit -- readiness vs. unreadiness.

The McCain campaign is reveling in the fact that Palin is a game changer. But why a game changer when you’ve been gaining? To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful "Is he ready to lead" line of attack seems near suicidal.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/08/the_palin_puzzle.html

[Political Heretic]

1. I think they were stunned to stupified silence by Obama's speech - put the nail in the coffin

..of the "is he ready to lead" horse shit.

[CarbonDate]

2. Goes to judgment....

...which has kind of been our point all along. He'll connect the dots soon enough.

[bidenista]

3. krauthammer is not "with the party" on embryo research

I'm guessing he's mightily angry about Palin's abortion/embyro research credentials.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. I Think Krauthammer Broke His Back In A Diving Accident And Wants To Get Out Of His Wheel Chair...

~

[BeyondGeography]

5. Hey, DSB, good to see you here

[scheming daemons]

6. My dad, a RW nutjob, absolutely thinks everything Krauthead says is gospel.....

This column will make his head explode.

[scheming daemons]

7. The best comment in the comments section:

Scoreboard shocker today--

Stopped clock: 2, Charles Krauthammer: 1

(and the day's not even done. Can Chuck pull an upset?)