Sarah Palin is taking a "Timeout" -- to begin "the education of Sarah Palin"

I mentioned this briefly in the open thread, but it really warrants its own thread.

With 60 days left in the campaign, Sarah Palin is going back to Alaska -- to study.

Jed first picked this up yesterday via Chuck Todd, then Newsweek's Howard Fineman gave a fuller explanation after talking to one of the top McCain campaign officials. Ben Smith heard the same thing.

Jed had the best line:

Forget whether or not Sarah Palin is ready to be president. She's not even ready to be a candidate for vice president.

And, the McCain campaign is proving that point.


The NY Daily News reports that McCain and Palin will be in Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado and New Mexico, this weekend:

The road-show intro of Palin to the lower 48 as part of the official ticket will begin in Wisconsin and Michigan Friday.

It will move west to Colorado and New Mexico tomorrow, a region where the Alaska governor was expected to do the heavy lifting for November.

After that, Palin was expected to break from the trail to return to Alaska and see off her oldest son, Track, 19, who is deploying to Iraq with his Army unit on Sept. 12.

So, the NY Daily News says the "road show" stops because of the son. That's the spin we'll hear over and over and over. (Even though reporting on a deployment date is very dicey and possibly illegal as Jon Soltz explained.)

Be real. It's mostly to duck the national media. Sarah is NOT allowed to talk to the press (except FOX, Rush, probably the Moonie Times). After all, Palin is only running for vice president of the United States -- one heartbeat away from the presidency. Why does the media insist on talking to her? Be interesting to see just how long the McCain campaign can keep her sequestered.