The seclusion of Palin from media scrutiny has gone from annoying to simply comical:

Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, is scheduled to meet Tuesday in New York with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.

But the McCain-Palin campaign’s sharp limitations on coverage of the meetings have sparked a mini-revolt – and a threatened boycott — among the press corps.

The campaign plans to bar print reporters from the meetings, and to limit coverage to brief photo-ops for a still photographer and a television camera. The television stations, though, are objecting, noting that they have a policy of not sending cameras to cover events without a producer, who provided editorial guidance.

A stand-off has ensued, with the networks threatening not to send cameras. The newspapers are trying to get back into the act as well.

I don’t quite understand what the McCain campaign thinks it is doing.  Every day that they keep her away from the press is another day that confirms not only that Palin is not ready for the VP spot but that the presidential nominee himself regards his running mate as little more than window dressing.  At least, that is how she is being treated.  Aside from boilerplate stump speeches, her purpose in the campaign seems to be to have nicely-staged photo-ops.  Even though this is part of McCain’s broader war with the media (break-ups can get ugly, can’t they?), it makes no sense. 

Yes, Palin might make some awesome, election-ending blunder if she has to answer a question about, say, Pakistani sponsorship of anti-Indian terrorism off the cuff.  However, as she is going to be under intense scrutiny on October 2 during the debate anyway, doesn’t it make more sense to give her some other opportunities to talk to journalists and become more comfortable facing adversarial questioning?  Why make the debate that much more consequential by making it one of the few times that she actually responds to questions from journalists?  More important, if the McCain campaign is at war with the media and has limited access to Palin, do you think most journalists and pundits are going to react to her debate performance favorably?  If the debate becomes all-important for her as a candidate and journalists are annoyed with the lack of access, won’t any flub that she makes then be magnified even more than it would have been? 

P.S.  After meeting with Karzai, Uribe and Kissinger today, she meets with Saakashvili, Yushchenko, Talabani, Zardari and Indian PM Singh tomorrow.  They’re really not going to drop this Georgia & Ukraine obsession, are they?

Filed under: foreign policy, politics