What Does an Implosion Sound Like?

Like:

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

And also like:

A Palin associate defended her, saying that she is "not good at process questions" and that her comments on Michigan and the robocalls were answers to process questions. But this Palin source acknowledged that Palin is trying to take more control of her message, pointing to last week's impromptu news conference on a Colorado tarmac.

With overtones of:

"Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said
another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin
after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to get her
"up to speed than any candidate in history."

And if you listen carefully,

"This is what happens with a campaign that's behind; it brings out the worst in
people, finger-pointing and scapegoating," this senior adviser said.

This came out Saturday, from CNN. Note that all of the above quotes come from members of the McCain/Palin campaign. So we see a basic lack of trust between the Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates, a surprising openness about Palin's simple lack of knowledge, and oddly lame excuse-making. "Not good at process questions?" Um, excuse me, the President of the United States (which is, whether McCain becomes incapable of that role or not, the job we are in fact entrusting to her) is all process. The prexy doesn't actually do anything: he (she in this hypothetical case) tells others what's going to happen, and they make it happen. If you don't get the process, you might end up telling the secretary of treasury how we're going to wage war in Iraq. (might have worked out better than Rumsfeld, actually)

And yet, and yet... I'm struck by how fervent her support is, from those that do support her. These appear to be people who simply don't care about reality, for whom everything is simply a Jedi mind trick. Those who believe that force of will, force of personality, trumps the evidence of experience. I don't know, I don't get it.

The above article does seem to indicate that Palin has no intention of leaving the national political stage, which seemed very obvious to me quite a while ago. I think (hope fervently) that enough Republicans reject this endarkenment-style attitude toward rationalism and empiricism that Palin cannot win a significant spot on any of their future tickets. And I think it's very possible, even likely, that she could break off from that party, and take the right wingnuts, rapture fanatics, and "WE control your body" social conservatives with her. Thus making Republicanism safe for human consumption again.

Followup: Excellent commentary from The Guardian- the British perspective on American stupidity.