The Osterley Times: McCain's team hide Palin away in case we get to know her.

Maybe it's all a deliberate attempt to lower our expectations, but the Republicans are making it very clear that they don't see why Sarah Palin should answer anyone's questions.

According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace -- in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough's show -- the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.

They keep telling us that this woman is ready to step into McCain's shoes and become President of the United States at a moment's notice, but then they refuse to allow any of her views to be explored in a public forum, instead suggesting that we should limit our knowledge of her to what she can tell us of herself by reading an autocue.

It's utterly reprehensible behaviour from the McCain camp and it's utterly transparent. If they had faith in this woman's ability they would have unleashed her to trounce Obama and Biden but, instead, they are hiding her away - whilst working to kill any investigations into her possible wrongdoing - and may possibly release her for a "tough" interview from Sean Hannity, but the rest of the press, and the American public, are going to be asked to get to know this woman (with extremist views) through carefully prepared speeches and TV ads which work precisely to hide who she actually is.

For example, a resident from Wasilla has described her time in office rather differently from the way Palin sold it to the Convention:

For starters, Palin "turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots" while lowering taxes for businesses and increasing the sales tax burden on residents. Far from being a fiscal conservative, she "oversaw the greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history." Palin borrowed taxpayers' money to fund an unprofitable sports complex "in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system," and "built streets to early 20th century standards."

This account lays it all out, from an observer who says she "attended more City Council meetings during (Palin's) administration than about 99% of the residents of the city." She was one of roughly 100 Wasilla citizens who stood up for the city librarian when Palin tried to fire her in 1996, early in her first term as mayor.

But what really struck me was the picture this author paints of Palin's ruthless, unbridled ambition, and willingness to try and fire or destroy anyone who stands in her way.

It would be nice to see Palin being asked to answer some questions on what others thought of her time in office rather than be allowed simply to give her own account unchallenged.

But that does appear to be the Republican plan with news emerging that she will return to Alaska after the convention, which will "sadly" make her unavailable for interviews, and the further news that she is being schooled in foreign affairs by Joe Lieberman.

Now, we have already been told that Palin is ready to step into McCain's shoes at a moment's notice and that, because she lives next door to Russia, foreign policy has entered her pores simply due to that geographical fact, so one has to wonder why someone who is already expert in foreign policy would need extra lessons from Lieberman and others?

It's blatant to all what is taking place here. McCain is having to hide his highly political choice of VP from the voters gaze until she can be schooled to a sufficient degree to be allowed out in public to mouth Republican talking points. That fact alone tells me that she shouldn't be on the ticket. The idea that Joe Biden or Barack Obama would need someone to tell them what they think about foreign policy is simply ludicrous.

People are supposed to reach a degree of proficiency in foreign policy and then run for high office, not be offered the position of VP and then play catch up.

And what will Lieberman be able to teach her in such a short space of time? Answers. Nothing else. He will be able to help her fake her way through the debate with Biden but he won't be able to teach her anywhere near the depth and breadth of understanding of complex issues that one would normally expect a VP to possess.

And that's why they are hiding Palin away. That's why Nicolle Wallace is telling us that the American people don't care if Sarah Palin does interviews or not. The truth is that Palin can't give interviews because interviewers can ask follow up questions and Palin, were she to take part in such an exercise, might expose her ignorance on anything but Alaskan politics.

So, they are going to hide her from the press until Lieberman has finished the tutorial that they hope will see her through the Vice Presidential debates without making an utter fool of herself.

And they are also planning to have Palin tell us who she is through speeches rather than have her subjected to interview because interviewers might ask her why her husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party and does she share his views? And, as the AIP is the Alaska affiliate of the Constitution Party and as the Constitution Party is a far right theocratic organization which seeks to place the country under Biblical law, does this association in any way tarnish Palin? You know, the kind of shit that Obama has had thrown at him for the last eighteen months.

But no, we are seriously being asked simply to accept Palin on the terms which the Republicans choose to reveal her in.

It's the most undemocratic thing I have ever heard of. We are being asked to place this person a heartbeat away from the presidency without any hard hitting questions from the American press. They deserve to lose for that reason alone.

UPDATE:

This is hysterical. First they claim that she is ready to be Commander in Chief and now we find this:

If she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that's something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move.

They plan to keep her hidden for at least two weeks so that they can get her up to speed. In other words she's not yet ready even to be Vice President. There's sixty days left in the campaign and the Republicans have just excluded their candidate from being vetted by the press for at least the next fourteen of them. Who needs 14 days to learn the positions of the man she's running with?

They are practically admitting that they have hired a small town Governor - whose interests appear to be no wider than that town and it's immediate concerns - and they are trying to punt that person as able to stand in for McCain "at a moment's notice" should anything happen to him? But it'll be 14 days before she's able to answer any questions?

Ridiculous...

That says everything that needs to be said about McCain's outrageous and risky political gamble.