Palin Shocker: How Will It Play?

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Palin Shocker: How Will It Play?

St. Paul, Minnesota -- The GOP is starting its meetings -- scaled down, for sure, but happening -- here at the Xcel Energy Center, and the buzz is huge: how does the news of Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter's pregnancy upset the cart? Or does it?

GOP folks here roundly insist no; Democrats outside the convention center say, are you kidding? Of course it does.

On one hand: Pro-life types love the fact that the daughter is getting married and keeping the child, and social conservatives are very into the Alaska Governor.

We saw that this morning at the Califonria delegation breakfast, where speaker after speaker -- like former California Secretary of State -- hit the talking points that she has more experience than Barack Obama.

Even as media raised questions such as: since the state of Alaska has just about 700,000 residents -- doesn't San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom arguably have more experience?

That was before the latest made the blackberrries.

So the convention has now opened, and here's the lingering questions on Palin from the floor and in private. What else don't they know? Did Team McCain do the proper vetting?

Meanwhile outside, we hear protests are heating up and getting wild.

Stay tuned.

[Dan the Roman]

The scandal itself won't hurt. More damaging is that Palin seems to be falling victim to a narrative of scandals. Even if individually they are harmless, people may begin to get the impression that she has real problems out of sheer volume. Palin is particularly vulnerable to this because no one knows anything about her, and first impressions are therefore very important. The baby, DUI, or Bridge to Nowhere thing may be nothing individually, but combined the major impression most voters will get of Palin is that she is "scandal plagued".

Palin is approaching a narrative, and its not a good one.

[Lincoln Republican]

What else would you expect when McCain picks someone he has met only once before, who was not properly vetted, and likely made the final decision on his own, against the advice of his brain trust, because McCain believed he had to make an out of the box pick?

An out of the box pick is fine, as long as they are credible.

Each day that passes is showing that Palin was clearly ill prepared for this role.

Personally, I believe Palin is a good person, but politically, she is ill prepared for the role of Vice Presidential nominee.   

The pregnancy issue is a personal matter, and should not enter into the campaign, but the firing matter raises questions of character, decision making, and Palin's views on ethics in government.

[Eraserhead]

She deserves credit if she survives all of this stuff. I give her 50-60% chance.

[Stranger in a strange land]

She deserves credit if she survives all of this stuff. I give her 50-60% chance.

She'll survive. It'll play great with the pro-life folks.

[HardRCafé]

The scandal itself won't hurt. More damaging is that Palin seems to be falling victim to a narrative of scandals. Even if individually they are harmless, people may begin to get the impression that she has real problems out of sheer volume.

Or it will look like the Liberal Left picks on a girl worse than on any boy.  Who does she think she is, anyway?