I’ve been saying for the past two days that Palin’s days as VP candidate are numbered.

Radio talker, Ed Schultz, reported yesterday [via Andrew Sullivan] that McCain insiders are now outwardly talking about how awful Palin prepping for next Friday’s scheduled debate:

McCain Camp insiders say Palin “clueless”
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people
are more than concerned about Palin.

The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”

Now, think back a couple months. I can’t recall a single negative leak from inside the McCain campaign until now. Davis and Schmidt run a pretty watertight tight ship, so any leak like this has to be considered significant. My guess is that everyone running the campaign is making the calculus of what is worse for McCain’s chances: dumping Palin now or letting the upcoming debate explode into a disaster from which recovery is all but impossible. I would say that a faction has concluded that the latter is the worse option and is now finding a way to kick her back to Alaska.

Update: More fears emerging from the right.  Shorter Rich Lowry - “When the whole thing implodes I can say, ‘I told you so.’”

I’ve been swamped with other stuff, but just for the record: I thought Palin was dreadful. She obviously didn’t have the reaction to the Charlie Gibson interview that I had hoped. She had better be better prepared for next week or she risks damaging her political brand forevermore.

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