Unleashing the Pit Bull

From Bill Kristol at NYTimes.com

With respect to his campaign, McCain needs to liberate his running mate from the former Bush aides brought in to handle her - aides who seem to have succeeded in importing to the Palin campaign the trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House. McCain picked Sarah Palin in part because she's a talented politician and communicator. He needs to free her to use her political talents and to communicate in her own voice.

I'm told McCain recently expressed unhappiness with his staff's handling of Palin. On Sunday he dispatched his top aides Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis to join Palin in Philadelphia. They're supposed to liberate Palin to go on the offensive as a combative conservative in the vice-presidential debate on Thursday.

One thing that was definitely missing from the Gibson, Hannity, and Couric interviews was the sharp, combative tone that electrified the Republican base at the convention. We've seen a little bit on the stump, but nothing recent. Recent conclusions that McCain could or should drop Palin from the ticket on the basis of one or two interviews are ridiculous on its face. Sarah Palin's primary contribution is to solidify the Republican base around John McCain, which I've been saying for four weeks now. That hasn't changed:

The Columbus Dispatch

In large, white writing, the signs sum up, in a word, why there's a new bounce in the step of GOP leaders trying to deliver Ohio, and specifically southwestern Ohio, for John McCain.

Sarah!

"I was one of those who always sat on the sidelines," said Cornett, 60, a retired truck driver from Lebanon. "Once Palin came on board, I said: 'Hey, I'm getting behind this.' It's amazing how she has brought out conservatives."

This is where I live and I see these signs all over the place. John McCain would be better off cutting his own throat rather than drop her from the ticket. Furthermore, we know without a doubt that she is intelligent, articulate and does good in interviews. We know this because there are plenty of interviews where she has shown it. Here is one on CNBC and one with Charlie Rose. From those we can conclude that the lackluster Katie Couric interview was either a product of bad handling, or bad editing, or a combination of both. The Kristol graph above indicates that handling is at least part of it.

This could be an advantage. Palin will be coming in to the Biden debates with extremely low expectations. Biden is a gaffe machine, yet he will be coming in with high expectations. As a Palin supporter, this is not a scenario I am unhappy with, to say the least. I'm hoping that if not before then, after that point Palin will have a more conventional media approach with plenty of time on talk radio, as well as the usual occasional questions. There will be gaffes, but there will also be more Sarah. With McCain's current poll numbers, he could use a little more...