Sarah Palin; designated scapegoat for conservative failure

Poor Sarah. The McCain election campaign is collapsing, the election hasn't over yet, and Sarah Palin is already being blamed for it's collapse!

Yep. Palin is already being blamed for McCain's failure to win. Did she really believe that her presence would turn a disaster into a success? Why did she think they selected her?

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

"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."

As Digby points out:

...it does take a real diva to accept a job for which you are completely unqualified and then blame the people who chose you for failing to properly prepare you for the job.

Apparently Sarah Palin was chosen because she was so dumb that she would accept the strange idea that putting her on a losing ticket would convert it to a winning one. That really wasn't in the cards. What her presence has done was keep the fund raising for a failed Presidential campaign going to the end. But the presence of Sarah Palin was never going to make the McCain campaign into one that wins the Presidency.

The presence of Sarah Palin has two effects. First, it jacks up the fund raising for the end of the campaign and makes the McCain campaign appear competitive towards the end of the campaign. Second, it provides both John McCain and the conservative movement with a scapegoat for why McCain has failed to win the Presidency. The conservatives will blame Palin for their loss, while they continue to try to sell the (failed) conservative ideology.

Sarah Palin wasn't chosen for Veep and not given preparation. She was chosen because she was not prepared. She is the designated scapegoat for the conservative movement.