Finger-pointin’ and in-fightin’
As far as I can tell, here’s how it went down in the Republican camp:
1. Sarah Palin gives an awful interview to Katie Couric.
2. The economic crisis hits in mid-September.
3. The combination of the above two mean the election is essentially over.
4. The McCain campaign gets desperate, in-fighting runs rampant as various advisors promote differing agendas.
5. Randy Scheunemann - C-list neo-con extraordinaire - senses a big McCain loss and the end of McCain’s (presidential) career and migrates to the Palin camp, hoping to attach himself to a rising star. He preps her for the VP debate.
6. Scheunemann gets quietly fired on Halloween, just days before the election, for “positioning himself with Palin at the expense of John McCain’s campaign message.” Spencer Ackerman summarizes this here.
7. After the election, sources tell FOX News that Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent - not a country - and which countries were members of NAFTA.
I think it boils down pretty simply: this looks like a loyal McCain staffer tears down Palin to FOX in order to expose and discredit the disloyal Scheunemann.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Interesting theory, Jim; however, isn’t it more plausible that McCain’s staffers just wanted to protect their professional futures by blaming the woman for torpedoing the Republican Lusitania? Loyalty and vendettas are more compelling, but less likely.
Like the fragging of that inspector in Iraq (a theory on which I *am* onboard), exposing Palin’s bewildering ignorance could just be some D.C. pollster’s form of preventive self-preservation.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Milton -
I think that’s exactly it - McCain’s staffers wanted to protect their professional futures.
Scheunemann was disloyal - always a bad thing in politics, let alone Republican politics - so they were essentially killing two birds with one stone.