This pretty much sums up the Palin dilemma, eh?

Robert Draper will be blogging during the last week of the campaign for GQ.  This post contains some more behind-the-scenes on prepping Sarah Palin for her VP debate:  I’m sympathetic to [Tucker] Eskew and [Nicolle] Wallace, and not just because they’re decent people. They’ve held their tongue from leaking what a couple of McCain higher-ups ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Robert Draper will be blogging during the last week of the campaign for GQ.  This post contains some more behind-the-scenes on prepping Sarah Palin for her VP debate:  I’m sympathetic to [Tucker] Eskew and [Nicolle] Wallace, and not just because they’re decent people. They’ve held their tongue from leaking what a couple of McCain higher-ups have told me—namely, that Palin simply knew nothing about national and international issues. Which meant, as one such adviser said to me: “Letting Sarah be Sarah may not be such a good thing.” It’s a grim binary choice, but apparently it came down to whether to make Palin look like a scripted robot or an unscripted ignoramus (emphasis added).   Of course, this speaks just as badly of McCain as it does of Palin.  He's the one who wedged himself into a Palinesque dilemma.  UPDATE:  Given all the speculation about Palin in 2012, it should be noted that just because she was uninformed in September 2008 does not mean she'll stay that way.  I'll be interested to see what course she charts over the next few years.  ANOTHER UPDATE:  Conor Friedersdorf is immune to irrational arguments about Palin:  In case you haven’t been paying attention, an enormous turnout at an Obama rally means that he is a celebrity cult leader who talks pretty to his mindless supporters but lacks substance, whereas smaller crowds turning out to see Palin prove that she is the best decision John McCain has ever made, and that she is obviously qualified to be vice-president.

Robert Draper will be blogging during the last week of the campaign for GQ.  This post contains some more behind-the-scenes on prepping Sarah Palin for her VP debate: 

I’m sympathetic to [Tucker] Eskew and [Nicolle] Wallace, and not just because they’re decent people. They’ve held their tongue from leaking what a couple of McCain higher-ups have told me—namely, that Palin simply knew nothing about national and international issues. Which meant, as one such adviser said to me: “Letting Sarah be Sarah may not be such a good thing.” It’s a grim binary choice, but apparently it came down to whether to make Palin look like a scripted robot or an unscripted ignoramus (emphasis added).  

Of course, this speaks just as badly of McCain as it does of Palin.  He’s the one who wedged himself into a Palinesque dilemma.  UPDATE:  Given all the speculation about Palin in 2012, it should be noted that just because she was uninformed in September 2008 does not mean she’ll stay that way.  I’ll be interested to see what course she charts over the next few years.  ANOTHER UPDATE:  Conor Friedersdorf is immune to irrational arguments about Palin

In case you haven’t been paying attention, an enormous turnout at an Obama rally means that he is a celebrity cult leader who talks pretty to his mindless supporters but lacks substance, whereas smaller crowds turning out to see Palin prove that she is the best decision John McCain has ever made, and that she is obviously qualified to be vice-president.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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