Keep Your Premonitions to Yourself

When you've got people working for you, it's always great when they're enthusiastic. Especially if it's a political campaign, you want them to believe in you with all their hearts and souls. But sometimes that enthusiasm goes to far. For the second time in three days, John McCain and his staff have gotten a little ahead of themselves when it comes to praise. On Friday morning, before McCain had even "reactivated" his campaign and agreed to appear at the debate later that evening, web ads were showing up claiming that McCain had already won it. That's one way to get the spin machine rolling. A similar overenthusiasm struck again today, as McCain himself, as well as his aides, started taking credit for getting the bailout bill successfully through the House. Another one for John McCain's win column!

And speaking of the McCain campaign not quite realizing how they're coming across, Sarah Palin has made another go of a Katie Couric interview. This time, however, she brought reinforcements: John McCain is providing adult supervision. Unfortunately for them, Howard Kurtz is reporting that there's still more embarrassing footage to come from the original interview. The timeline is bound to get confused. If voters see Palin with McCain holding her hand and then see her again tripping over her answers (or, as Jonathan Martin suggests, saying nothing at all), they're going to recognize that she can't be let out on her own.