Sarah Palin is a drag on the ticket. Andrew Sullivan was right from day one. It didn't take me long to come around, though. But now there's polling data that shows it unequivocally.
Does this shake me from my conviction that Sarah Palin will get the nomination in 2012? Honestly, my faith has wavered a bit. I guess the question is this: do Republicans still have minimal self-preservation instincts? They haven't in this election. In some ways, picking McCain made sense. But the only GOP bright spot this year is likely to be Lou Barletta, which means the GOP will see this as the only way forward and will go on an anti-immigrant tear. This is also a bad idea, unless one assumes that the GOP wants Hispanics to vote Democratic by margins comparable to Blacks. And that they want to lose the Southwest for a generation.
So who, in an era of blind lashing-out, does the GOP pick for their standard bearer? Someone they don't like that much who used to be quite centrist, or the true believer? I guess we'll see, but if the narrative about Sarah Palin remains that there's nothing wrong with her and that it was the fault of the media and McCain...could happen. Then again, even Republicans are losing faith in her ability to take over. So...maybe?
