You are correct that Palin was "off message and irresponsible," Phil, but after all she was being asked to defend John McCain's record.
Besides, Couric was clearly asking one of those when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife questions. Couric began by attempting to eliminate McCain's calls for increased oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from consideration as evidence of his reformist zeal.
Palin rightly replied that, in doing that much, McCain had done "more than a heck of a lot" of others in Washington. Yet Couric then says McCain "has almost always sided with less regulation, not more." She returns again and again, pushing for "concrete examples" of McCain "pushing for more regulation."
Well, I can't think of any examples, and for all I know there aren't any. But I fail to see how Couric's winning at "stump the band" demonstrates that Palin is less ready for the presidency than Joe Biden or Barack Obama -- or John McCain, for that matter. Palin did at least as well with Couric as McCain did on "The View."