The Consequences

Via Hitchens, I learn that John McCain’s best buddy Lindsey Graham said this about Governor Palin sitting down to interviews with the press:

We’re asking the American people to pick the next president and vice president, and we do not expect the American people to do so—’Trust me’—blindly. She will have to do what’s expected of people in this business. … In countries where that does not happen, I do not want to live.

Can the McCain campaign keep Palin under wraps through the elections? It seems like they’ve got no incentive not to, given how any sort of flub, even a minor one, would drown his sinking campaign once and for all. I’d imagine Palin herself is keenly aware of her own limitations after the Gibson and Couric interviews and is in no rush to ruin her own chances in 2012 should McCain lose in two weeks.

Nevertheless, quotes like the above suggest that should McCain lose, the Palin choice and its consequences will have done a fair bit of harm to the reputations of many of the good Senator’s friends and allies. I imagine the candid conversations will not be pretty.