Pitbull Palin

Frank Rich, writing in his weekly New Your Times column, titles this offering as Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain.

Rich suggests that her aggressive performance in the vice-presidential debate, while perhaps righting her ship that had been listing precariously, actually shot a torpedo through the hull of McCain's boat in the process. In an environment of financial crisis, where the McCain campaign stubs its toe each time it attempts to step off in a new direction, you have Palin.

Rich writes: It’s against this backdrop that Palin’s public pronouncements, culminating with her debate performance, have been so striking. The standard take has it that she’s either speaking utter ignorant gibberish (as to Couric) or reciting highly polished, campaign-written sound bites that she’s memorized (as at the convention and the debate). But there’s a steady unnerving undertone to Palin’s utterances, a consistent message of hubristic self-confidence and hyper-ambition. She wants to be president, she thinks she can be president, she thinks she will be president. And perhaps soon. She often sounds like someone who sees herself as half-a-heartbeat away from the presidency. Or who is seen that way by her own camp, the hard-right G.O.P. base that never liked McCain anyway and views him as, at best, a White House place holder.

One of my favorite fake motivational posters has a photo of one kid mushing the face of his opponent (another kid) during a youth soccer game, with the caption warning "Never stand between a competitive jerk and his goals." I see a little bit of this with sweet Sarah.