I've thought from the time of her announcement that the Obama campaign should pretty much ignore Gov. Palin except when using her selection by McCain to talk about McCain.
The Times has an editorial today and an oped from Bob Herbert on the Palin/Gibson celebrity interview segments.
Both posit the narrative that the Obama campaign should run long and fast with: John McCain has epitomized his complete lack of judgment and his irresponsible behavior with his appointment of Sarah Palin.
And the narrative is about McCain, Palin is just the vehicle to tell it.
Herbert writes:
She's Not Ready
While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might actually prevail.
How is it that this woman could have been selected to be the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket? How is it that so much of the mainstream media has dropped all pretense of seriousness to hop aboard the bandwagon and go along for the giddy ride?
For those who haven’t noticed, we’re electing a president and vice president, not selecting a winner on “American Idol.”
Ms. Palin may be a perfectly competent and reasonably intelligent woman (however troubling her views on evolution and global warming may be), but she is not ready to be vice president.
With most candidates for high public office, the question is whether one agrees with them on the major issues of the day. With Ms. Palin, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing. She doesn’t appear to understand some of the most important issues.
...
John McCain, who is shameless about promoting himself as America’s ultimate patriot, put the best interests of the nation aside in making his incredibly reckless choice of a running mate. But there is a profound double standard in this country. The likes of John McCain and George W. Bush can do the craziest, most irresponsible things imaginable, and it only seems to help them politically.
Picking up Herbert's narrative ball and running it further down the field is the paper's editorial:
Gov. Palin’s Worldview
As we watched Sarah Palin on TV the last couple of days, we kept wondering what on earth John McCain was thinking.
If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.
It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.
What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.
...
One of the many bizarre moments in the questioning by ABC News’s Charles Gibson was when Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, excused her lack of international experience by sneering that Americans don’t want “somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”
...
This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis.
In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.
Go read it all, it's great stuff. The Obama campaign would be wise to keep hitting McCain with "bad judgment" and "irresponsible" from here til November 4th, and only refer to Palin in that context eg. Gov. Palin's abuse of power just goes to show what poor judgment John McCain has, or Gov. Palin's saber rattling with Russia just goes to show how irresponsible John McCain is. The details of Palin's disqualifications can be left to surrogates and the suddenly active MSM.
And of course: the economy, the economy, the economy.
UPDATE for no particular reason other than laughs:
commenter suggested DIGGing this, not sure if I'm doing this correctly, but:
Herbert Oped - She's Not Ready
Gov. Palin's Worldview editorial