National Review columnist says Palin should step down

Kathleen Parker has changed her mind.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League...

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there...

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

McCain is in a bit of a bind. According to Ed Schultz, the inside word from the campaign is that they're terrified of her going in front of a camera toe to toe with Joe Biden, or having a legitimate press conference.

If he replaces her with someone else, the hardcore evangelical base will be furious and will abandon him, and the public perception will be that he has no idea what he's doing. This is even if she "voluntarily" quits "to spend more time with her family." The perception will be that she was pushed out, pure and simple.

If he doesn't, he risks alienating more moderates and independents, and making a bigger joke out of his campaign than it already is. There's no doubt that Palin won't be able to compete with Biden in a debate. Even with the bar set so low for her, botched Republican boilerplate and "I can see Russia from my house" won't compete with Biden's firm grasp of the matter. Only the hardcore wingnuts will think that Biden is just being unchivalrous in all his responses, as if that was all that mattered.

The debate flip-flop already has caused criticism to come from his own side, and his embarrassment of a running mate is only making things worse. By this time, I'm expecting McCain's solution to putting out a fire is going in there personally, pushing firefighters aside, and whizzing on it.