ASK A SILLY QUESTION…. John McCain and Sarah Palin met with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, and in a break from preferred campaign policy, reporters were briefly allowed into the room for the photo-op. Big mistake.
McCain then looked around the room and gestured as if to welcome questions. The AP reporter shouted a question at Gov. Palin (“Governor, what have you learned from your meetings?”) but McCain aide Brooke Buchanan intervened and shepherded everybody out of the room.
Palin looked surprised, leaned over to McCain and asked him a question, to which your pooler thinks he shook his head as if to say “No.”
Look, “What have you learned from your meetings?” is an easy one. It’s not a trick question, or a “gotcha” question, or even a question intended to do test Palin’s limited understanding of international affairs. She could have easily said something like, “I’ve been encouraged by how much support the United States continues to enjoy around the world.” No muss, no fuss. It’s not rocket science.
But, no. The McCain campaign apparently believes the Republican vice presidential nominee is some kind of child, under strict instructions not to speak. Palin has no doubt been receiving extensive briefings on a variety of subjects, and could probably handle a random question or two, but the McCain gang is so convinced of her incompetence, they’re just not willing to take the risk — even after a genuine media backlash has begun in earnest in response to the campaign’s heavy-handed approach.
Greg Sargent asked, “Has anyone pointed out that McCain has placed Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency?”
It is a rather comical prospect, isn’t it?
