I had noticed that for all the talk about her, Ms. Palin herself had been conspicuously absent since her announcement -- she gave a speech, and we haven't heard shit from her since then. My guess is she's been sequestered while they try to get her ready for prime time.
Now, however, the McCain campaign is moving from not letting anyone talk [B]to[/B] her to not letting anyone talk [B]abou[/B]t her:
[QUOTE]ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain's campaign on Wednesday angrily called for an end to questions about its review of Sarah Palin's background, deriding a "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee" for vice president.
"This nonsense is over," declared senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt in a written statement.
...
"The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process," Schmidt said, lashing out at "the old boys' network" that he says runs media organizations.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/03/mccains-new-palin-strateg_n_123527.html[/url]
Translation = "We now realize that this pick has completely blown up in our face, and we're going to closely control the message to make sure the situation doesn't get any worse."
If there's any good that came from this from McCain's standpoint, it's that everyone shut up about how awesome Obama's speech was by about noon on Friday. By making this pick, the McCain camp obviously hoped to make news, and mission accomplished on that front. Be careful what you wish for, though, IMO -- they've drown out their own message of how great McCain is and how awful Obama is by redirecting all the attention to Palin's Sea of Controversy and the McCain campaign's own laughable screening process.