PALIN ROLLOUT PLANNED; POSTPONEMENT OF ROLLOUT TO FOLLOW IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD

I know it makes me a contrarian, but I'm still predicting that Charlie Gibson's ABC interview of Sarah Palin won't be as bad as everyone else in the left blogosphere expects (though I am enjoying the lists of predicted questions I'm seeing). Really, watch this Gibson interview of McCain -- it's not horrible.

The disgrace is the 9/11 angle. In a story titled "McCain Plans New Palin Rollout," Politico tells us that Gibson is going to watch her on the anniversary of the attacks as she "speak[s] at her son's Army deployment ceremony." (Gosh, isn't it an amazing coincidence that the son of a nobody governor who wasn't even on her national party's radar until a few weeks ago just so happens to have a son shipping out to Iraq on 9/11 in an election year when she's the VP nominee?) Gibson's going to talk to her on 9/11 and 9/12, and the first part of the interview is expected to air on 9/11.

This is Team McCain's opening. All Gibson has to do is ask and broadcast any question with the slightest sting, especially a question about national security, or any question that can be spun as a "gotcha," on that most sacred day, 9/11, and it's off to the races.

The McCainites will turn the alleged outrage into the story -- the sleazy attack dog of the liberal media asked her that! on 9/11! as her son was shipping out to Iraq! (And this will be loudly proclaimed even as Slick Sarah glibly glides her way through the actual interview, though she'll almost certainly tear up at least once, very dramatically.) And then the McCain team will self-righteously announce that the Palin rollout is over, because the press is just too biased to deserve the privilege of standing in the presence of Her Nibs.

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Gibson will wrap up his interviews on Friday. By that time, we'll have known Palin for what -- two weeks? Please note that she has five children, and in that short two-week span she will have specifically exploited three of those children for political gain: her Down Syndrome newborn, her pregnant oldest daughter, and now her Iraq-bound son. What a great parent.