John McCain finally gives Sarah Palin her due

For several months after the election, 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain always had some something nice to say about his former running mate, but his heart never seemed to be in it. He never publicly and properly chastised those among his campaign staff who had spread nasty rumors about her to the press, and on one appearance on Jay Leno's show, the Arizona Senator neglected to even include Sarah Palin among a list of potential leaders of the Republican Party. But McCain is at long last giving Sarah Palin her due.

Lord knows she deserves some props from McCain. Sarah Palin has always been loyal to the former Vietnam War POW on the campaign trail, and even after the election she refused to say a discouraging word about the man she considers to be a genuine American hero. Her public adoration of McCain seems to be more than just the Blue Star mom in this mother of a soldier serving in a Stryker Brigade in Iraq. Sarah Palin has, in fact, kept Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment religiously, never criticizing a fellow Republican, even after some of them have been less than charitable in their statements concerning her.

McCain has finally gotten with the program. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" early in July, he told David Schuster that he thought Sarah Palin "would make a fine president."

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, McCain told Stephen Moore that his best memory from the campaign was of Sarah Palin:

"The high point, I think, was the convention, the selection of Sarah Palin, and the enthusiasm that was generated all over the country." His fondness for Mrs. Palin and her family strikes me as from the heart; he believes she was a net asset for the ticket.

"Let’s face it," he says, "she galvanized our base in a way that I couldn’t. Everywhere she went she drew enormous and enthusiastic crowds like a rock star." He says his only regret in selecting the Alaska governor was that no one on the campaign predicted the ferocity of the assaults against her. "To the liberal left, particularly the feminists, she is their worst nightmare."

Appearing on CNN’s "State of the Union" this weekend, McCain not only defended Palin's decision to resign as Alaska governor, but also said he was...

"...saddened by the fact that there are still such vicious attacks on her and her family," adding, "I’ve never seen anything quite like it."

In the CNN interview that aired Sunday (video of the Palin segment here), McCain also said:

"I respect Sarah Palin. I appreciate her and her husband enormously. I think she will continue to play a major role in the future of the Republican Party."

Why did it take McCain so long to come around with stronger support for the woman who campaigned so hard for him and never turned on her former GOP running mate? The more cynical of Palin's supporters will say that part of the answer to that question, at least, can be found in the disclosure that Sarah Palin's political action committee raised more than $730,000 in five months. The former governor of Alaska has proven that she can raise money, and Friends of John McCain has already been the beneficiary of a $5,000 contribution from SarahPAC.

McCain also told CNN that he would welcome Sarah Palin to Arizona to campaign with him in his bid for re-election in 2010. Just like old times...

- JP