I have to agree with Phil that the McCain ad is just absolutely horrendous — “pathetic,” indeed. If I see one more attempt to play the victimized woman card, I might vomit. It’s one thing to rightly fight back against outlandish media treatment, but to go around proactively seeking victimhood status even when the opponents haven’t done anything obnoxious is, well, disgusting. And if they keep doing it, they will seriously overplay their hand and the backlash against them will be strong and swift. Over at The Corner Rich Lowy made the point I’ve been making on radio, which is that now that McCain has gotten a short-term benefit from Palin, he needs to shift his campaign back to real substance, on real issues where he holds a real political advantage over Obama. Right now his campaign is looking horrifically unserious, and that completely destroys McCain’s biggest argument in his favor (if the campaign keeps this up).

Meanwhile, I also agree with Phil that from what I saw in the Palin interview with Gibson (and I saw only portions of what has been shown so far), she seemed terribly out of her element. She really did seem like somebody who had crammed for an exam at the last minute and was trying to remember what the “right” answers were instead of really knowing them. And unlike Stacy, I do not think she came across in any way that would be reassuring even to most of her own supporters. She needs to be far more impressive when the debate rolls around, and I don’t mind saying that I am rooting for her to be so.