Regardless of what you think of Palin, good or bad, the McCain camapign sure has bungled rolling her out to the public.

They should have known that people would be intensly curious about her because she is so unknown. They should have had her ready to answer questions and do interviews. Instead, they leave the media digging for anything they can get their hands on to define her, and most of it is not good news.

You didn't see the same kind of frenzy around Biden because the public has had something like 36 years to get to know him. He has a solid record that is well known. Palin is unkown and a big surprisse, so they should have been ready for a media blitz. Hell, if she is actually any good at all, they could have used all the excitement to their ADVANTAGE. She is all the media is talking about right now. They have the spotlight, so why aren't they using it? The McCain campaign has struggled to get media attention during this election, but now that they have it, it looks like they can't manage it at all. They are hiding her.

If you don't give the media something, then they just go with what they've got. That's why you've got them pulling out video of her asking what exactly it is that the VP does. And that video of her addressing a church and saying that the war in Iraq is a mission from God and that God wants a natural gas pipeline. It's a fiasco.

They aren't offering anything to put this stuff to rest, so she is looking more and more like Bush's pick of Harriet Myers for Supreme Court --- an underqualified woman picked solely for her gender. The Republican party is not big on affirmative action, but it does seem like they picked an underqualified woman mostly for that fact that she IS a woman, not for her credentials.

Maybe her speech tonight will put some of it to rest, but with the way the 24-hour news media works these days and how quickly public opinion can form, it may be too late.

Has a candidate ever withdrawn a VP pick? Not saying that it will happen --- it's definitely too early, given that we know nothing about her. But if she turns into a real liability, is there precedent for withdrawing a VP nomination?