I do think that the criticisms may have served as a wake up call — to knock Palin into relying on her good judgment or to get handlers to back off a bit. There were the lighters criticisms — concerns raised by the likes of Bill Kristol on Sunday and yours truly last week. But there were the more vociferous ones. Kathleen Parker might have just saved the McCain campaign. Who knows. But I’d not punish anyone for just being honest, which is what I believe Parker was doing (as I’ve said).
That said. She’s smart and has good instincts. I bet she would have figured it out and pushed the bad advice away herself. We all try to do our jobs!