This does not sound like a Palin-trashing 2012 Romney strategist at work:

MADDEN: Look, John McCain made very clear that he wants to shake up Washington. He wants to reform Washington. He wants to change the way it looks at the problems of — that everyday Americans are facing.
And who better than — and the McCain campaign will make this argument — who better than somebody who is a chief executive, somebody who is an every mom, somebody who identifies with the everyday anxieties that Americans face across this country?
And that’s why he chose Sarah Palin.
And, you know, Larry, I can only turn to my very accurate, my very esteemed personal focus group of my mother, my sister and my wife — two of them which are Democrats — and they identify with Sarah Palin on a lot of these issues — these economic issues and these social issues that are very important to voters.

And there’s this:

KING: Kevin Madden, I’ll ask it another way, would the American public be certainly content today to learn that our new lady is going to be president?
KEVIN MADDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, sure. Look, I think you have to remember –
KING: They would? There would be no concerns?
MADDEN: I think you have to remember how they’re going to use Sarah Palin, what Sarah Palin’s appeal is. You look at that clip right now and there are probably millions of women, millions of other voters across this country right now that see somebody that they can identify with, not only as a governor, but as a mother. As somebody who –
KING: I’m talking about as a president.
MADDEN: I’m talking about as a president, too. Look, I think as a validater for a lot of the anxieties that Americans face nowadays, Sarah Palin is a perfect pick. She’s somebody who can go out there and talk about the kitchen table issues that Americans are facing all across this country, the economic anxieties that they have, the soaring cost of health care, the way that Washington has become detached from the way the rest of America works, and the concerns that the rest of America has.
So Sarah Palin is going to be somebody who as a governor, as a mother, as a wife, is going to be able to talk to those concerns. And she’s complementary to John McCain’s judgment, his experience of leading this country forward on a lot of the other issues, like national security and foreign policy.

Read his supposedly “harsh” commentary on her wardrobe incident. Is that “harsh” or honest?

So many of us who love our country are focused on next Tuesday right now and will start to tackle the next four years and think about 2012 the next morning (or, say, on the NR cruise a few days later). Nothing I’ve ever heard (or Googled) Kevin Madden say suggests to me he is not in that camp. And based on his public comments, the idea that he is leading an anti-Palin campaign is just silly.