Much to the delight of 24-hour news outlets everywhere, the Republicans have started eating their own.

Several prominent conservatives have expressed their doubts about Governor Palin’s readiness & qualifications, and in one now famous case have even suggested Palin remove herself from the ticket. Here are two interesting ones in the news:

David Frum, former speechwriter for President George W Bush (and source of the phrase “axis of evil”), National Review Columnist and former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research:

‘“I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who is now a conservative columnist, said in an interview. “If she doesn’t perform well, then people see it.”‘

Kathleen Parker, syndicated columnist, consulting faculty member at the Buckley School of Public Speaking, and author of Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

…

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

This has, predictably, sparked a spasm of schadenfreude among liberals. But for me, what’s interesting is not what these gurus are saying, but why.

People like Frum and the host of other conservatives who are mumbling about the Palin problem must have a reason for speaking out at a time like this, which contrasts pretty sharply to the ‘circle the wagons’ strategy of the past few weeks.

The little cynic on my shoulder whispers that it might have to do with self-preservation. Are these guys, whose careers depend on politicians and the public trusting their judgment and opinions, just reading the writing on the wall? Are they going on record about Palin so they can say, after the election, that they were right - and thus keep their reputations for political acumen intact? If so, this is fantastic news for Obama.

Another possibility is that they are sincerely calling for Palin’s exit because they hope to save the McCain candidacy? If so, this is also great news for Obama, because these folks would almost never suggest such a drastic change a month away from the election unless it was the only way to save the campaign.

The only way I can imagine that this might be good news for the McCain campaign is that it lowers the expectations for Thursday’s VP debate even further, and that they’ve already drafted their post-debate “Oh! Wow! She’s great! Mea Culpa!” columns, but I think this is a pretty risky strategy.

Your thoughts?

Edit: don’t worry, Republicans. The Dems like to eat their own, too. Way to go, Bill! (Check out about 1:20 into the video)

Watch Campbell Brown go off on the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin by - brace yourself - John McCain and his campaign:

And then, check this out from last night’s CBS interview of the McCain-Palin duo by Katie Couric:

3 things, Senator McCain:

• First: Please don’t answer for your running mate. Your role should be to let her answer the questions, not to give disclaimers and excuses and then say, “Oh, well, I’ll let her answer for herself.” Paternalistic, well-intentioned sexism IS STILL SEXISM, and treating her like this probably doesn’t exude confidence in your choice and her abilities.

• Second: To imply that this was “Gotcha Journalism” is ridiculous. You shouldn’t view questions from voters as attempts to ambush your running mate. Why shouldn’t people be able to ask public figures to clarify their own words? Who would you prefer did the asking, then? The liberal media your team has been railing against?
  It also seems to indicate that you don’t think the average person ought to have spontaneous interaction with or access to the people (potentially) representing them. That’s ludicrous. Has The Straight Talk Express gone off the rails?

• Third: Funny that you’d say the Bill Clinton was “the governor of a small state with no experience EITHER”. Is that an acknowledgment that Palin doesn’t have experience? Or am I just engaging in more Gotcha Journalism by attempting to parse the words coming out of your mouth?

The $700 Billion bailout package failed in the House today, sparking the largest single-day DOW point loss: 778.

Many GOP holdouts held fast to their refusal to socialize our system. I have to admire them for this principled stand, and I confess my philosophical side thinks along the same lines, perhaps worded differently: Live by the market, Die by the market.

If deregulation and unfettered greed with no oversight caused this, and people profited from it, then the greed sometimes gets rewarded with consequences like this.

Part of me feels revulsion at the very idea of bailing out the greedy SOBs - which on a superficial level reminds me of the stereotypical rich kid whose actions might hurt others but will never be punished because, hey, what are mom and dad for except to clean up the mess for him?

And yet, I obviously have to acknowledge the practical implications. Which is worse - bailing out, or not bailing out? Here’s an interesting quote, from GOP Representative Jeb Hensarling:

You were being asked to choose between financial meltdown on the one hand and taxpayer bankruptcy and the road to socialism on the other and you were told do it in 24 hours.

For sure, dude, for sure. I can’t imagine the pressure our Deciders are under right now.

So, since I don’t have any brilliant answers for anyone at this time, just for fun I’ll just offer up some of the interesting comments I’ve been seeing around the Interwebs this afternoon.

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Conspiracy Theory #1: The Congress isn’t too disappointed about the bailout’s failure to pass.

This theory claims that Congress isn’t actually too upset that the bill failed. Once the market crashes, they figure, Americans will be clamoring for a bailout the stem the flow, and Congress will be able to do whatever the hell they want, without fear of pissing off all their respective constituents.

Ok, this is only a conspiracy theory if we assume this was the sinister plan all along. Otherwise it’s just a prediction about what’s next based on an outcome.

I award this theory only half of one Stuperb Tin Foil Uber Hat (STFU hat). It’s just not crazy enough for a full STFU hat.

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Conspiracy Theory #2: Martial Law.

For a while now, the far lefties have been abuzz about a super secret executive order that gives President Bush the authority to declare martial law under very general conditions he can call a “national crisis.”

This, combined with the knowledge that a number of troops will be called home from Iraq to serve here to provide homeland defense, and that these troops go into action on October 1, has the same lefties looking very suspiciously at the timing of the crisis and the failed bailout. Conspiracy theorists think the national economic crisis will provide the conditions Bush needs to declare martial law, suspend elections and habeus corpus (further), deploy troops to keep us under his thumb, and rule foreverandevergodhelpus.

So, my gut reaction to this theory is to giggle a bit. But to be fair: it’s ninety percent a “look at the loonies” kind of a giggle, and maybe ten percent a nervous, uneasy giggle.

Ok, now this theory gets a full 2 STFU hats because it combines several elements to make a more stuperbly compelling theory.

The first Presidential Debate happened last night at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, after some doubts about whether McCain would be willing to debate in the middle of the financial crisis.

I give McCain credit for coming. I think it’s really important to hear from our candidates - especially now.

I’m not too interested in giving a summary of the debate. I’ll just say that both sides alternately impressed and didn’t impress me, and the end result was pretty much a draw, though I was really happy that since both performed well, voters will have to decide the outcome of the debate based on issues, not gaffes or jabs. Since neither candidate dominated, how you view the debates depends much more on whose world view you agree with than on who you thought crushed the other guy. This is excellent news for all of us.

Instead, let’s talk about what last night’s debate might mean politically for the two candidates.

Polls

We’ll have to wait for some more ‘official’ (read: scientific) polls before we draw too many conclusions. Most of the online polls conducted after last night’s debate showed a slight edge for Obama over McCain, but given that they were from online news sites like CNN and MSNBC, we might be able to presume a slight liberal bias of the website visitors. I don’t think we can make much hay with these numbers.

One thing that might be somewhat interesting, though, as discussed by Justin Gardner of Donklephant, is that a CBS snap poll shows independent, uncommitted voters favoring Obama in the debate by a spread of about 14 points overall (winning by 24 points on the economy and losing by about 8 points on foreign policy). If these numbers are to be believed, it’s good news for Obama in a race this close.

Of course, it’s too soon to know whether these are real numbers yet, or whether independent, undecided voters even exist at this stage of the game.

Implications

This debate was supposed to be about foreign policy, though clearly after the week we’ve all just endured, the economy had to play a major role in the discussion. The candidates did get around to discussing foreign policy after a while, and despite some petty arguments (like over whether Kissinger did or did not say a particular thing), we got to see some contrasting ideas about diplomacy and engagement.

Here’s the thing, though. McCain’s turf is foreign policy, and while he did really well last night, the fact that the polls and pundit opinions were fairly evenly split, after a discussion many people expected to favor McCain, ought to give us pause.

McCain has been slipping in the polls since the lustre of his VP choice has begun to fade, and he really needed to deliver a decisive blow in the debate to claim the lead. We’ll see what happens when the ‘real’ debate numbers come out early next week, but since none of the pundits talking today are saying that one guy did better than the other, it might be safe to assume that the election polls won’t move much. This means Obama will still have a slight edge in the national polls (which may or may not be relevant).

Now onto the VP debates to be held on Wednesday, 10/2. It should be a barrel of laughs, with plenty of fodder for both sides. Check back for a VP debate drinking game/bingo board for your entertainment.

Are you angry that that Hussein fellow is doing so well in the polls? Want to lash out at the libtards, but don’t know where to start?

Fear not, Patriot. Now you can leave your Freedom Mark (TM) all over the Internet, from the comfort of your own AOL account, and get a bonus: POINTS!

From JohnMcCain.com (emphasis mine):

Tell The Web

Help spread the word about John McCain on news and blog sites. Your efforts to help get the message out about John McCain’s policies and plan for the future is one of the most valuable things you can do for this campaign. You know why John McCain should be the next President of the United States and we need you to tell others why.

Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.

It’s easy, too! The site thoughtfully provides links to all sorts of blogs as well as handy talking points for you to use. My six year-old - once I taught him how to copy & paste - racked up over 1200 McCain Action points in just a few days!

He’s saving up for the McCain/Palin inflatable Constitution punching bag. Good on ya, son!

(For the record, I’m all for anything that spurs conversation and discussion, but let’s be honest: that’s not the aim of “Points for Posts”)