Late Friday the Alaskan legislature released the report of the investigation (pdf) of Governor Sara Palin for abusing her power as Governor in violation of Statute 39/52/110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. That report will negatively affect the Presidential campaign of the man who chose her as his running mate, John McCain. In fact, it is probably now clear to even the McCain presidential campaign staff that John McCain can no longer win the presidency.
It is stretching credulity to think that this report was not related to the midday effort by John McCain to step away from the hate-mongering towards Barack Obama which he initiated about midday Friday. Choosing Palin as his running mate with inadequate vetting was only one of many long-shot gambles that McCain has employed to try to make his run for the Presidency into something viable. The McCain "hate-fest" was another. The recent Presidential polls strongly suggest that both those efforts and the rest of McCain's campaign have now failed.
Emptywheel raises some interesting issues that the conjunction of those two events raises. Her first issue is to question the connection between those two event.
Second, Since Palin was not removed immediately as the Vice Presidential candidate and the campaign is clearly trying to spin the conclusion of the report, it appears that she will remain on the ticket. That suggests point three - the "maverick" issue that Palin has contributed to are no longer useful to the campaign. So fourth - how much longer can the RNC continue to fund the clearly losing McCain for President campaign while a number of both Senators and Congresspersons are in close elections and can put the same money to much better use than can the McCain campaign? [Emptywheel links to a good short discussion of this at Crooked Timber.]
It looks like the next shoe to drop may be that the RNC cuts the McCain for President campaign loose financially in order to try to preserve as much of the Republican Party as possible. Currently the Democrats control the Senate with 49 Democrats plus Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman. Of Democrats running for reelection, only Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu appears to be running a tightly competitive race. 24 of the 35 Senate seats (two are Senate races for less-than-six-year terms) up for election this year are held by Republicans. If Mitch McConnell and Saxby Chambliss both lose their Senate races, then it becomes very likely that the Democrats will reach their filibuster-proof majority of 60 votes in the Senate.
Obama already has an almost overwhelming money advantage in the Presidential race. When the RNC cuts off funding of "McCain for President" ads, it is going to be clear even to the MSM that McCain has lost the race for President. That will happen soon. There are only three full weeks remaining until the election.
Addendum 9:37 pm
Steve Benen reports that a number of Republican candidates are declining to appear with McCain at campaign events. That's going to work with any effort by the RNC to withdraw financial support for the McCain campaign ads.
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