I still find it indispensable and I’m an enormous fan of Chuck Todd but tell me if this doesn’t come across as slightly less than dispassionate analysis from perhaps the only honest brokers left at NBC:
Role Swap: Speaking of… If you want more evidence that Sarah Palin has emerged as the true principal of the McCain campaign, just look at the weekend schedule. Today, John McCain — the party’s presidential nominee — appears on the “The View” and “Rachel Ray”; he’s down in DC on Saturday; and then he flies to New Hampshire for a NASCAR race there on Sunday. By comparison, Palin — the running mate — returns to the Lower 48 tomorrow, immediately holding a solo campaign event in Carson City, NV. The campaign has made it crystal clear who the campaigner-in-chief is. And it’s not McCain. It’s an astonishing and unprecedented development in American presidential politics. Essentially, the person driving the rallies, crowds, and campaigning isn’t the person running for president. Just asking, but when are going to start hearing this from McCain camp TV ads, “I’m Sarah Palin, and I approve of this message.”
I don’t dispute that Palin is a star and the McCain campaign is exploiting that fact. But if Barack Obama was on the View and Rachel Ray (millions of viewers there) while Joe Biden was holding a rally in Carson City, NV would these guys write anything like that?
Also, First-Readers — please stop saying “just asking” or “just saying,” it’s a lame and outdated way of snarking at people without taking responsibility for it. Everyone slips every now and then, but you guys do it almost every day.