I touted her as a VP candidate on February 1, and I'm a know-nothing peon. McCain, or some of these low-life staffers wielding the daggers, should have had her on the radar back then as well. They should have used February, March, April, May, and on to roll her out to the American public, if for no other reason than to give her some seasoning and gauge America's response to her.

Palin was tossed into a losing game way too late, and asked to do way too much. In a few short days she had to:

* introduce herself to America
* get across her very compelling storyline
* energize a conservative base distrustful of McCain
* learn on the fly how to deal with the partisan national media
* raise funds for a lagging campaign
* provide vitality to the campaign
* draw and inspire crowds the Presidential candidate could not
* and act as the traditional attack dog

Way too much to ask anyone to do in such a short period of time.

How different things would have been if this compelling woman would have been introduced to the American public back during the Spring as an energy expert--which she is. If her first introductions would have been low-key. as a surrogate for McCain on TV interviews, etc. talking about ANWAR and energy, people would have been saying, hey, did you catch that engaging, intelligent, attractive woman on Meet the Press Sunday? instead of their first impression being Tina Fey's "comedy".

How different would people have reacted to her nomination if only they would have had a chance to know her first?